Digimon Frontier 02: Anything Else
by WolfWriter123
Summary: Two years after our heroes defeated Lucemon, a new evil is on the rise, and new heroes along with the old are called upon. A sequel to the TV series Digimon Frontier. Light violence (could be changed later). Includes OCs/New Characters. Takumi. KojiOC. KoichiOC. Shimoki(Implied). OCxOC(Mentioned). JP(Forever Alone). Digimon belongs to Bandai and/or Saban Brands.
1. 1: A Rude Awakening

**Hey! Welcome to Digimon Frontier 02! :) obviously, this is a sequel to Digimon Frontier, my favorite season (although we can all admit it had its very weak points and that Zoe was just fanservice at some points). I have a lot of headcannons and 02 stories for Digimon Frontier so I thought, _'why not make a story?'_ so here i am! Also, it sucks reading Digimon fanfictions that haven't updated in two years. **

**If you guys like this story (or what I have written of it so far) please leave a review or some form of support! It will really help me keep writing. Let's hope i just don't blotch up any of the character's personalities**

 **Disclaimer: I don't Own Digimon, just any OCs I create :)**

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 ** _Chapter One: A Rude Awakening_**

All Takuya had wanted was some sleep. Was that too much to ask for? He would rather not feel as though Lucemon Shadowlord Mode was raking his claws down the sides of his body. At the shock of being attacked, he had awoken from his slumber only to be met with agonizing pain. He tried to scream out, or fight against it, but the 'claws' prevented him. Something dark and cold seemed to surround him and he felt shivers run down his spine as he was 'pulled under'. At least, that was the only way he could describe it. He felt the temperature go from the heat of Summer straight to Antarctica cold. He felt frozen, and he hadn't even opened his eyes. Or, if he had, everything was pitch black. Without warning, the pain suddenly vanished, leaving only an irritating ache behind. His fingers tips felt numb, but he managed to grasp his sides and take deep breathes, although he couldn't hear the breathes he was taking. The world slowly let up, and the cold, frigid air changed to warm, humid air.

That was the series of events that lead Takuya to where he is now.

Takuya Kanbara, recently turned 14 years old, equipped with his famous goggles, although his backwards hat was missing, rubbed his eyes sleepily. He blearily looked around, unable to really register his surroundings. He grumbled something under his breath. He scowled at the harsh light and rubbed his eyes again but more forcefully. He blinked a few times, trying stop his eyelids from being so heavy. His sides still hurt.

He heard someone whine from beside him, and he heard shuffling from many others. That was what made Takuya finally get a hold of his senses, albeit a bit sluggishly.

He was in a white and silver corridor laced with golden and black designs and tapestries. He took him a moment for the fact that other people where with him to really sink in. It took him _another_ moment to realize it was his friends, the ones who had traveled to the Digital World and stopped Lucemon with him. That could only mean they were back in the Digital World. But how, and why?

With a start, he noticed they were all in their normal everyday to day clothes, equip with shoes, bandannas, gloves and whatnot. Startled, he looked down at himself, and found he was, in fact, in a red t-shirt, shorts, shoes, and had his worn-out gloves on. It was a pretty basic look, but he was surprised to find he had any clothes on- he usually slept in just boxers.

Glancing back around, Takuya locked eyes with Koichi Kimura, the Warrior of Darkness and twin to the Warrior of Light. Koichi grinned sheepishly, although his eyes betrayed his own confusion. Unlike the others, who looked as tired, if not more than, Takuya, Koichi looked as bright as a daisy, as if he hadn't had his sleep disturbed. Koichi was one of those night owls, even more so. The dude always had a problem going to sleep at night. Takuya guessed it might be a side effect of being the Warrior of Darkness, or maybe he had always run on just 3 hours of sleep.

Takuya blinked, disgruntled, and rubbed his eyes again. He looked back at the others. Koji Minamoto, the Warrior of Light, was massaging his eyes, and, a popular facial expression for him, scowling. Izumi "Zoe" Orimoto, an Italian girl and the Warrior of Wind, had a bad case of bed head, and she was rubbing the side of her cheek and blankly staring ahead. Junpei "JP" Shibayama, the oldest of the group and the Warrior of Thunder, seemed out of it, and was just blinking, still half asleep and looking a bit anguished. Tomoki "Tommy" Himi, the youngest and the Warrior of Ice, was rubbing his chest and eyes and was breathing ruggedly, although he looked the most awake after Koichi.

"Warriors," a familiar soft, feminine voice called out, ringed with worry and confusion.

Takuya immediately snapped out of all his sleepiness, along with the others. Takuya turned to where he heard the voice come from.

 _'It couldn't be…?'_

"Ophanimon?" He said, voice laced with many emotions, although he was heavily confused and hesitant.

It wasn't Ophanimon he was staring at, at least, he didn't think so. It was another angel woman, with pink ribbons and flowing blonde hair and less armor than Ophanimon.

The angel Digimon gave a nod, though. "Yes, it's me, Warriors, although I'm in my ultimate form. I am Angewomon."

The Legendary Warriors exchanged glances before turning back to Angewomon.

"How did we get here?" Koji inquired, taking a stiffer stance accompanied by a hard stare.

" _Why_ are we here?" Zoe added on with Tommy nodding beside her.

Angewomon furrowed her brows. "How you got here…. Is what I do not know. I was not expecting your arrival, I planned to send a message out for you in a few days. I was informed mere minutes ago. I do not know what dragged you here, or how you got here without a Trailmon."

At that, everyone traded horrified or puzzled looks. If Angewomon had not sent for them, who had? And why had they pulled them here so painfully, and in the middle of the night?

"As for why you are here, the answer is obvious. The Digital World is in peril, and you need to save it," Angewomon continued. She turned around. "Come, all of you… Including the new ones." She gestured down the hallway.

At the mention of 'new ones', Takuya jerked his head and looked around. His gaze locked on four humans who had huddled together near a pillar in the corridor. Takuya did not mask his surprise well. How had he missed them? It seemed the others, save for Tommy and Koichi, had not noticed either.

There was a small, blue-dyed and short haired, flat-chested girl who looked around 14 with frightened, glittering dark blue eyes. She wore a blue and darker patched jacket with a white under-shirt and blue jeans. She had an arts and craft dark blue beaded bracelet on her right hand that she was fiddling with. She stared at the group of Warriors with uncertainty and her eyes flashed with concern and terror when she looked at Angewomon.

There was also a tall, pale-haired blond, pale-eyed, with a silverish or grey tint, boy with a simple white and gray t-shirt, jeans and brown shoes. He seemed around 15, maybe 16. He glanced quizzically at Angewomon, although Takuya could spot fear based on how tense his stance was. Takuya also saw him pinch himself.

Beside the pale-haired boy was an almost bored looking 14-year-old long-haired brunette with green eyes, although, looking closer, Takuya guessed she just might be more indifferent than bored. She wore a green shirt with darker green sleeves and brown cargo pants. She scowled at the Warriors and flat-out glared at Angewomon.

A few steps away from the other three was a younger hazel-eyed boy with dark hair that reminded Takuya of that one color called black olive who looked around Tommy's ago, so about 11 years old. He wore a black shirt and pale knee-length shorts. When the Warriors looked at him, he gave them a warm toothy smile, although he looked a little more concerned with clutching his stomach. He didn't really seem focused on Angewomon, although Takuya saw him cast a cautious look her way.

"Who are _they_?" Koji asked in a rough tone.

"I could ask you the same thing," the brunette snapped back. Her eyes flicked over to Angewomon. She scowled deeply. "And who's Angel-face?"

Takuya felt a prickle of irritation rise as she insulted Angewomon. _'Uh oh, another lone wolf, just like Koji.'_

"That's Angewomon, one of the three Celestial Angels of the Digital World," Tommy informed them politely, a kind look on his face. They only got blank stares from the other four.

After a moment of silence, the older boy said, "What is this, heaven?"

"No, it's the Digital World," JP began to explain, but Angewomon cut him off.

"We will have time to explain later, but for now, I'd prefer to get to a safer place. I do not know why you were brought to such a random corridor," Angewomon said, shaking her head. "This place is much too close to an entrance for my liking."

"Why can't we be near an entrance, Angewomon?" Zoe asked.

Angewomon began to walk down the corridor, beckoning the human children to follow her. The Warriors followed without hesitation, but the other four frowned and didn't move for a moment. Then, the young boy moved forward, slowly walking after the group, still slightly holding his stomach. The older boy's frown deepened, but he followed after the younger boy and the two girls followed him, one timidly and the other one irritatedly.

Angewomon lead them down a few more corridors and hallways. They mostly stayed quiet, until Zoe spoke again.

"Angewomon, what is the Digital World in danger from?"

Angewomon frowned and turned a corner. For a moment, Takuya thought she wouldn't respond.

"At first, it seemed like a few troublemakers. Then we realized the attackers were more serious and stronger than we thought. They've taken down many of my soldiers and comrades."

"Who are they?" Tommy questioned, concerned for the safety of the Digital World and any friends he had made in it. "Is everyone alright?" He added.

Angewomon stopped and unlocked a room with a key. She then gestured for them to enter to which the Warriors did. The four newcomers hesitated, except for the youngest, who strolled right in and gave the Warriors a smile. The brunette glared at Angewomon, obviously not trusting her. She glanced into the room, quickly scanning it.

"How do I know this isn't a trap?" The brunette sneered, looking at Angewomon suspiciously.

"Does this look like a trap?" Takuya sighed. He was still a little too tired to deal with someone like her.

"There's no exits," the brunette countered. "No way to leave." The timid blue-haired girl looked a little worried at that, and the older boy's frown deepened.

Angewomon frowned. "I assure you, no harm will come to you." She paused. "But, look, I'll leave this door open, okay?" She hesitated again, seeming reluctant as she continued. "Leave if you wish, but I must warn you, we haven't had an attack today yet, and one will be coming soon, so it would be dangerous to leave."

"An attack?" The girl inquired at the same time as Takuya.

"What's attacking you?" JP asked Angewomon.

"Yet?" Tommy repeated.

Angewomon gestured again for the three to go inside, and reluctantly (very reluctantly on the brunette's part), they entered. Angewomon left the door open as she promised, and the girl stationed herself beside it.

Angewomon let out a long sigh before recollecting herself. "Yes, an attack. Every day we get attacked by a group, no, an army of Digimon. We as in the palace and all who live within it." Angewomon turned to the symbols on the walls. The room was rather plain, save for them. She traced one of them- it was the Warrior's symbol of Light. "The leader of these Digimon seem to be copycats of the Legendary Warriors, although they aren't heroes and to their credit they haven't claimed to be saving graces." Angewomon moved on to trace the symbol of Darkness. "They have the same symbols on them and the same elements as you all, except we've only counted six." She paused. "No, recently we found a seventh." She turned back to the Legendary Warriors. "We thought they weren't that big of a deal, but it seems they are much stronger than we gave them credit for. They've ruined, ransacked, terrorized or enslaved many villages and neither mine, MagnaAngemon nor Antylamon's comrades have been able to put a dent in any of the seven, although their armies are easy to take down seeing as they mainly comprise of Rookie and Champion Digimon."

"Um," a voice cut in. Everyone turned their attention to the older boy of the newcomers. He got a but squeamish under their gazes. "Not to bother you, ma'am, but, I'm rather… lost."

Angewomon gave a soft chuckle. "Ah, yes, do excuse my impoliteness. I am a bit out of it today."

The boy gave a respectful dip of his head. "It's no matter. Mind filling us in on… uh, this 'Digital World'?" By the way he said it, Takuya could tell he was skeptical, but he was pleased that he had gone about it in a more polite manner than the brunette.

Angewomon unfolded one of her wings, letting it brush against the wall with the symbols for the Warriors. "The Digital World lives parallel to the Human World. This world is comprised of computer data and the inhabitants are Digital Monsters, also known as Digimon. The Digital World has seen peace and war many a times. During the reign of an evil Digimon called Lucemon, the ancient Legendary Warriors rose to defeat him. Sometime after his defeat, he began stirring up trouble even from death, and the Legendary Warriors were resurrected in the form of Spirits, which were given to these humans-" She gestured to the six humans in front of her. "-to give them the power to Spirit Evolve into a Digimon so they could save the Digital World."

There was a dead silence from the four kids. They all seemed to stare blankly at her, registering this information. The brunette stared indifferently at Angewomon, while the blue-haired girl fiddled with her bracelet and refused to look up. The dark-haired boy gave a small frown before he looked at the six other humans. In his mind, he was thinking about how these six seemed to believe in the angel Digimon. He gave a tiny smile, as he so often did.

The pale-haired boy tilted his head a bit and gave a struggled look at Angewomon. "That sounds kinda… far-fetched. No offense." He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, sending a glance towards the Warriors. "Huh, so, I haven't been drugged have I?"

Takuya blanched at that. "W-what?" Takuya stammered, along with some of the others.

"No, no, you have not," Angewomon assured.

"Trust us, Angewomon is a friend," JP added.

"What gave you that idea?" Koji questioned, raising an eyebrow.

The boy's gaze flickered to the brunette, who still hung stubbornly by the door.

"Well, something like this could really only happen in a dream or a game," he said hesitantly, drawing out the words as if unsure.

"I dunno," the younger male said, turning to face Tommy. "I mean, if these six seem to believe the angel, I don't see why not!" He poked Tommy's arm and Tommy frowned at him, pulling his arm back. "And they feel pretty real to me." He twirled back around, before seeming to regret that decision and pausing, holding onto his stomach with one arm. Nevertheless, he gave the older boy a grin. "And, I dunno about you, but usually my dreams are really fuzzy. I'm not saying this is totally real, _buuut…._ "

The older boy still looked skeptical but he refrained from saying anything again.

Angewomon turned to the carvings in the wall. "Well, there are four of you here. It makes me wonder… are you the last four Legendary Warriors?"

"What?!" was what practically everyone shouted.

"You can't be serious," Koji insinuated, casting a glare towards the brunette. "We've worked well with just six."

"But you had to go through a much longer and tedious way to find the us! Isn't it weird they just popped up?" Zoe said, frowning worriedly and messing with the sleeve of her purple shirt.

"Well," Takuya argued, facing Zoe. "We were dragged here by something that even Angewomon didn't know."

Zoe's eyebrows furrowed and she opened her mouth to respond.

"There's two girls," JP stated from beside Koichi.

Everyone looked at him.

"What?" Takuya blinked, confused. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Koichi looked at JP. "What he means is that only Ranamon was a female Warrior, the rest were males. And there's two females so…"

Everyone absorbed the information quietly. Takuya processed the information slowly, still a bit tired although the brightness of the rooms and the fact this was serious was waking him up. _'Two girls… One girl Warrior… oh.'_ If that was the case, then these four couldn't possibly be Legendary Warriors. Or, three were and one wasn't. His mind wandered back to those four kids they had meet last time in the Digital World. At… Steel Town, was it? The ones with the Angemon. They had been in the Digital World, but weren't DigiDestined.

Angewomon softly laughed, startling the thinking Warriors.

"Digimon aren't that confined to gender roles," Angewomon stated. "A Digimon can be reborn from male to female or no gender at all. It doesn't matter. After all, we don't really have a reason to reproduce, do we? We're made of data."

Takuya felt his face go a little red at that. "Oh," he chuckled softly to himself.

"Why would we be these 'Legendary Warriors' anyway?" The pale-haired boy asked, glancing at the other three.

"That's up to the Spirits," Angewomon informed him with a shake off her wings. She retraced some of the symbols on the wall gently, her lips pursed.

"The Spirits?" The younger boy got up on his tippy toes, and sprung back down, humming quietly to himself. He looked on with interest, hazel eyes sparkling, although he seemed a little unfocused.

Angewomon nodded. "Yes, the Spirits of the Ten Legendary Warriors, as I mentioned earlier. If you are chosen, the Spirits would reside in your D-Tector and allow you to Spirit Evolve." The angel Digimon smiled sweetly. "Takuya, mind showing them your D-Tector?"

Takuya started and scrambled to grab his cell phone from his pocket. Unsurprisingly, a red and black D-Tector was in its place. Takuya couldn't stop himself from smiling as he clutched the D-Tector firmly in his hands.

"Nice to see you again, Agunimon…" Takuya whispered under his breath. The screen lit up in response and Takuya grinned wider than he felt he ever had. Nothing could describe how happy he was to be back in the Digital World after two years, and to be able to be with Agunimon again, and to be able to Spirit Evolve into him. He felt lighter than air and brighter than the sun.

The others pulled out their Digivices as well, rubbing the rubber of it and hugging their D-Tectors with stupid grins on their faces. The other four looked at them with mixtures of curiosity and confusion, or, if you were the brunette, one of disgust.

"Do we have those?" The young boy asked, walking over to Takuya and examining the device. He reached out to poke it and Takuya instinctively pulled back. The boy didn't seem offended at all and merely retracted his hand, looking curiously at the D-Tector.

Takuya gave the child a lop-sided grin. "Well, if you had a phone when you came here then yeah!"

The boy blinked, reaching down into his pocket and pulling out the bulky shape of the D-Tector. His was a shiny silver with white rubber. He took a moment to register the device. "I didn't exactly fall asleep in this outfit, so I dunno how my phone got here." He tilted his head before giving a hesitant smile. "This is cool though, but I'm still gonna get my phone back, right?"

Takuya nodded. "Yeah, that's what happened last time when we left. They're D-Tectors here and phones at home." That seemed to relieve the young dark-haired boy.

The other three had pulled out theirs as well. The brunette's was a brown with green rubber, the pale-haired was a tan with darker brown rubber and the shy girl's was an icy-blue with navy blue rubber.

Angewomon cleared her throat to capture their attention. "Since you have D-Tectors, I'd be wise of you to try and unlock the Human Spirits we have kept in these symbols." She pointed a pink nail at the circle of symbols on the wall.

The four new children traded unsure glances.

"Wait," Zoe interrupted, raising a dubious eyebrow. "The four other Spirits are in _those_ symbols in _this_ room?" At Angewomon's amused smile and nod, Zoe gave a disbelieving gasp. "In here?! But this room isn't even that fancy! There's nothing in here! No guards, and no security either! Heck, you left the door wide open!"

Angewomon chuckled at the ranting blonde. "Yes, Zoe, that is quit the point. We made sure this room was as non-suspicious as possible. It seemed high-security areas seemed to attract a lot of attention, and the attention attracted spies, wannabes and traitors. This solution, as profound as it may seem, has been quit effective."

Zoe, along with some of the others, blinked in perplexity.

"So, back on the Spirit things, how does this work again?" The pale-haired boy resumed, looking skeptically at his tan and brown D-Tector.

Angewomon moved a few steps away from the symbols. "Simply aim your D-Tector at it, and it should come to you, if you are the chosen ones."

Takuya frowned. He leaned over to Koji. "How come they get it so much easier than us?" He mumbled grouchily and enviously. Koji just shrugged, looking at the new four with disdain.

The four were obviously doubtful, and seemed lost in their thoughts for a moment. Takuya impatiently frowned. He supposed believing in all this might be hard, but since he knew everything Lady Angewomon was saying was true, it felt a little annoying having to wait for them to decide.

The child raised an eyebrow and 'hmm'ed, he looked back up at symbols. "So, what are our options?" He asked cheerily.

"Options?" Koji jabbed, raising an eyebrow as well. "You don't _get_ options, the Spirit chooses you."

Angewomon, on the other hand, was much more politer, and replied kindly to the kid. "The Warriors of Water, Wood, Earth and Steel."

"Ah, alright, I'll dig, then," the kid smiled, raising his silver and white D-Tector. He moved his gaze to the six Warriors. "If this somehow kills me, my name is Kouta Maekawa. So please, tell my family that I died in an act of heroics." He gave a cheery grin. Takuya decided he liked this kid and his good attitude and humor.

"My name's Takuya. Nice to meet ya, Kouta," Takuya greeted amiably. He would have stuck his gloved hand out for a handshake, but there was a flash from Kouta's D-Tector. From the symbols on the wall, the silver one shaped like a blocky wave with two symbols in-between began to shine a white-ish silver. There was two low, shaky beeps from Kouta's D-Tector, before the silver symbol ripped itself off and shot into Kouta's D-Tector. The dark-haired child yelped and dropped the D-Tector, surprised at the sudden movement and light. The D-Tector clattered to the ground, the glow fading, and Kouta winced, probably thinking he broke it already. Realizing the D-Tector had no damage what-so-ever, he recollected himself and picked it up with a curious smile. He tapped it.

"So the Spirits are just in there now? What do I do with it?" Kouta asked chirpily, messing around with the buttons. He seemed more interested in the device when the map popped up.

"Yep," Takuya said happily, waking up to the younger boy. "When your in battle, all you've gotta say is 'Execute! Spirit Evolution!' and swipe your fractal code- that's something that'll appear around your hand- over the D-Tector, and then you'll change into the Warrior of Steel, if I'm reading the symbols right."

"Mmm," was all Kouta responded with, now just staring at the screen of the D-Tector rather than fiddling with it.

"Who's up next?" Koichi asked the other three with a kind smile. The tall male frowned to himself, and sent another glance at the brunette, who seemed mildly irritated but otherwise indifferent.

The blue-haired girl mumbled something, playing with her bracelet again.

"Hm?" Koichi tilted his head, giving her a friendly smile as to not alarm her. After all, she had been moving to the back of the group, behind Koichi and JP, most likely trying to avoid the attention if her shy mannerisms where anything to go by.

The girl jumped a bit, startled. Her cheeks flushed and she stuttered for a moment. "I-I... Um..." She cleared her throat and her eyes flickered from Angewomon to Takuya and Kouta and then to her bracelet. "Do we.. Do we have a choice?"

"What do you mean?" JP further inquired.

The girl shuffled nervously since the attention was all on her. "It's just- I just... I-I'm not a good fighter. I-I've never gotten into... I've been i-in fights, b-but I've never f-fought back before..." She winced and rubbed a bead from her bracelet. "I... I guess, preferably... I'd r-rather not have one of the, um, 'Spirits'."

Angewomon offered her a soft smile. "Well, the Spirits don't just choose anyone. If you are chosen, then you were chosen for a reason."

The girl's gaze flickered rapidly, so quickly that Takuya couldn't register what she was looking at. She backed away from the group a little bit. "I-I-I g-guess, but i-if I was chosen t-that doesn't mean I have to stay ri-right?" She straightened up, looking fearful. "If I was- If I wasn't, uh, very useful, I c-could... Um, leave?"

Takuya frowned, along with many of the others. Koichi gave her a small smile, trying to make her feel more comfortable, while Zoe spoke up.

"It's like Opha- er, Angewomon said, if you're chosen, you're chosen. I'm sure we could help you practice fighting," Zoe assured her. The girl looked her in the eye before gazing back down at the ground sadly.

"Look," Koji scoffed, and Takuya could already sense he was going to say something rude. "If she doesn't want to stay, she doesn't have to. She already said she couldn't fight, and we don't need to waste time training her."

"Koji!" Zoe scowled at him, hands on her hips. Takuya gave his friend a hard stare before sighing while Koji's twin looked at him with some mild annoyance.

"Really?" Takuya grumbled to the Warrior of Light. He rubbed his eyes. "I'm still too tired for this right now."

Koji raised an eyebrow, arms folded. "How are you not awake by now?"

"Guys," Tommy interrupted before a fight could break out.

JP turned back to the girl while the others settled their disagreements. "What's your name?"

The girl blinked, startled that he was asking. Everyone went quiet and waited for her answer.

"Um," she seemed to blush a little bit. "R-Rana."

The six Legendary Warriors blanched and coughed at that.

"Oh my gosh," Zoe laughed. "You've got to be kidding me. That is the weirdest coincidence ever."

"No way!" Tommy gasped, before stifling some giggles.

"Well I guess we know what Legendary Warrior she's gonna be, what with her name and the blue aesthetic," Takuya chuckled, rubbing his forehead.

"Wow," JP muttered with an eyebrow raised. Rana tried to make herself smaller and was completely red from all the attention.

"Sorry," Koichi apologized, rubbing the back of his neck with a sheepish smile, although his eyes flashed with amusement. "We just weren't expecting that."

"Y-yea..." Rana mumbled, fiddling with her bracelet. Takuya guessed she might have heard Koichi mention Ranamon earlier, and she had probably figured something like this might happen at the mention of her name.

There was suddenly a bright light, and everyone jumped. They all turned back to the symbols next to Angewomon. The brown symbol that looked like an 'm' with a 't' attached to the top of it, the Warrior of Wood's symbol, shot out from the wall like the Steel's symbol had before. The light raced to connect to the brunette's brown and green D-Tector. Once the light show stopped, she examined the D-Tector with a scowl. Takuya frowned. She almost looked unhappy that she'd obtained a Spirit. She put her arms to her sides and looked back at the other staring DigiDestined. She raised an eyebrow, as if to almost say 'What?'.

The pale-haired boy cleared his throat. "I, uh, better just get this over with." He said, almost reluctantly. He raised his tan and brown D-Tector with a look of confliction. "My name's Yori, by the way."

The light came quickly, and the beeping of his D-Tector was a faint, rumbling sound. The tan symbol, which Takuya would describe as one of those candle things, burst into light, and the Warrior of Earth's symbol twirled and zapped into Yori's D-Tector. He bit the inside of his cheek and stared down at the D-Tector with furrowed brows. "Huh."

Realizing the attention had turned to her, Rana's stance stiffened and she looked more stressed than before, if that were even possible. She raised the D-Tector with a shaky hand. Her eyes betrayed her regret in that action. Her blue D-Tector let out one serene, long beep as the light shined out of it. Rana flinched, shying away from the light and watching with dread as the dark blue symbol rattled and was pulled off the wall in a blur of white light. Her D-Tector let out a quiet beep as the light entered it and died down. Rana did not look at her D-Tector, rather, she just put down her hand shamefully and looked downcast and guiltily at the floor.

"Well, now that we have all the Legendary Warriors, we can discuss-" Angewomon was cut off as there was a sudden explosion that echoed down the halls, making the gathered human children jump. There were shrieks and alarms that followed as well.

"What the heck was that?!" Takuya shouted along with JP and Zoe.

Koji turned to Angewomon. Before he could even ask her a question, she answered.

"We're under attack."

* * *

 **Hope you like the new characters. I bet you're wondering why Rana is called Rana. Well... I don't know! It could be something like Umi or Naomi, but... Two years ago I accidentally thought of the Warrior of Water human with the name Rana, and it just stuck! And two years ago, Aki was less lone-wolf-Koji, but after the... unfortunate exclusion of another OC, I had to change around Aki's personality for things... Let's just say the idea for this story started with romance and shipping ;)**

 **Hmmm, wonder what dragged the Warriors into the Digital World? Trust me, it's not what you're expecting!**

 **Please leave a review! Even a few words are appreciated :)**


	2. 2: Up in Flames

**_Chapter Two: Up in Flames_**

Koichi had been following the brunette girl ever since she had left the room with the symbols. He had noticed her leave in the middle of Yori obtaining his Spirit. She was walking with folded arms, finger tapping her D-Tector. She was obviously not in a good mood. Koichi didn't want to know how angry she would be when she realized he had been trailing her for the past minute or so. He was pretty good at staying light and silent on his feet, not just from being the Warrior of Darkness, but also from... Well, stalking his twin brother was really only the way to describe it.

The palace was eerily silent, and Koichi had seen no Digimon roaming the halls. In the silence, Koichi's mind began to wander. He didn't really know what to think about. They were back in the Digital World, for one, after a whole two years. Not to mention, Koichi was pretty sure he was physically here this time and not just spiritually, which was a bit weird. Everything felt more... _Real,_ and touchable. Before, he had been touching things, sure, but _feeling_ them? Not really. And now he'd be able to _feel_ the fatigue and the damage from battles.

He also thought about the new Warrior of Wood. Would the brunette still become Arbormon? Or would it be a more feminine version of Arbormon? Would it even be Arbormon at all? Koichi cracked a smile, trying to image a female Arbormon. The smile faded when he remembered who had deleted Arbormon.

Koichi shook off any thoughts of his past. He needn't think about those right now. He had already thought about them constantly every night for the past two years. Even with his brother and his friends' reassurance and kindness, he could never really get rid of the guilt and the shame and the horror. It wasn't as bad as it was originally, but... Koichi knew he would be forever harboring that guilt until the day he died.

There was suddenly a loud crack, followed by a boom, signifying a large explosion from somewhere farther down the palace in the direction behind Koichi. The brunette and Koichi both jumped. The brunette whirled around, and was clearly startled when she saw Koichi standing there behind her. Koichi gave her a sheepish grin, but she just narrowed her sharp green eyes accusingly at him.

"What are you doing?" She demanded in a low, threatening voice. She scrutinized him, scowling. Koichi could tell from her overly stiff shoulders that she was more alarmed to find he had followed her without her knowing.

Koichi put his hands up to show he wasn't trying to pick a fight or spy on her. "Sorry, it's just dangerous for you to wonder the halls alone."

She glared at him, straightening her posture. "I'm perfectly capable of defending myself on my own. Especially now that I have this Spirit or whatever. I didn't need you to stalk me."

Koichi guiltily smiled, shuffling awkwardly. "Ah, sorry, again. But really. It's safer for someone more experienced with fighting Digimon to be with you."

She studied him for a second, clearly unamused. She scoffed, turning around and heading further down the hallway.

Koichi hesitated to follow, looking behind him. That explosion surely meant something was attacking the castle... He wanted to go help his friends, but... They would be fine without him. The brunette, on the other hand, would be severely disadvantaged if she was attacked.

He began to walk after the girl, making sure to make his footsteps audible to alert her that he was following. She picked up her pace when she realized he was following.

"What's your name?" Koichi asked politely. She paused, before she continued walking.

"Why do you want to know?" She rebuked.

Koichi frowned. "Uh, so I don't have to refer to you as 'the brunette'?"

"Then what's yours, so I don't have to refer to you as 'the raven-haired stalker'?"

Koichi let out a low chuckle. "Alright, fair enough. It's Koichi Kimura."

She didn't respond for a moment, she just kept walking. Koichi was ready to ask her for her name again when she spoke.

"It's Aki," she said. "Aki Domen."

"Well, Aki, where do you plan on going once you get out of the palace?" Koichi asked, hoping to make conversation.

She paused again, allowing Koichi to catch up a bit. She looked over her shoulder. "Who said I was trying to leave?" She continued walking once Koichi fell into step beside her. She didn't look at him, she just kept her gaze firmly and strictly ahead of her.

"You're wondering the halls, taking random corners," Koichi stated. "I don't know what else you'd be trying to do."

Aki didn't respond. She clutched the D-Tector in her hand and pursed her lips. The two walked down the halls in silence. It wasn't very long until they stumbled across a large wooden door in an equally large white room decorated with small fancy tables that had plants and other objects on them and a few waiting chairs. Hanging ferns and flower pots were scattered throughout the place, giving the white and silver room color. Two guards, both JewelBeemon, were situated at the doors. It was clear this place was one of the entrances to Lady Angewomon's palace.

Aki tensed at the sight of the armored insect Digimon, clenching her D-Tector tightly. Koichi, on the other hand, merely greeted the Digimon silently with a smile. The taller JewelBeemon buzzed his wings, but otherwise did not acknowledge them. A Mikemon, a calico cat Digimon, who had been napping on one of the chairs, perked up at the sight of the humans, but didn't move as to not wake the Nyaromon resting in her lap.

After a few moments of silence, Aki moved forward, opening her mouth to speak, but she was cut off as a loud bang vibrated through the room, and the door suddenly cracked. The JewelBeemon jumped into action, and the Mikemon scrambled with the startled Nyaromon in her claws. The door burst open, allowing smoke to pass through and letting the heat from the blast seep into the room that had knocked over the door. On top of the opened door was a sizzling and smirking Flarerizamon, a dinosaur Digimon literally made out a fire and a metal mask. Five ShadowToyAgumon, three DemiMeramon, three Falcomon and one Peckmon surrounded the Flarerizamon. Two other Digimon stood at the back of the group, but Koichi didn't recognize what Digimon they were.

One was a slender orange-scaled dragon with large wings, sharp golden talons, thick golden whiskers, a chest plate, shoulder blades and fire at the end of its tail. Every breath it took, smoke came from its nose and fire spurted from its mouth. The spikes on its back lit up and extinguished as well. Red circles and lines marked its body, particularly along its face and neck. Two white dots were under its oddly bright icy-blue eyes. It had long, sharp horns with two smaller ones below them. Curiously, it had a small rocket launcher attached to its tail. The most peculiar thing, though, was the symbol of Fire on its chest plate.

The other one was a feminine lady Digimon with armor covering almost every inch of her except for her stomach and lower face. The armor was a midnight blue with lines of pale yellow on the edges of it. Electricity cackled through it. In her hand she held a chained metal ball of spikes that conducted electricity. She wore yellow lipstick, had two blood-red smudged rosy cheeks and had two tiny fangs poking out from her mouth. On one of her shoulder pads was the symbol of Thunder.

 _'They must be the Warrior replicas Lady Angewomon was talking about,'_ Koichi figured, as if the symbols on their armor wasn't enough to go by.

Flarerizamon let out a burst of flames, igniting the place on fire. The DemiMeramon quickly followed, burning the plants to a crisp and torching the tapestries, flowing ribbon and curtains. The ShadowToyAgumon marched forward, while the Falcomon and the Peckmon began to attack the guards. The Mikemon digivolved to a Beastmon and began to defend the terrified Nyaromon.

Koichi wasted no time to grab his D-Tector. The familiar ring of data appeared around his hand and he couldn't help but smile at how comforting the familiar sight was. He raised his hand up and brought down the fractal code, swiping it against the black D-Tector.

" **Execute! Spirit Evolution!** " He shouted, the words rolling off his tongue. In an instant, he was surrounded by a cocoon of data and the process of Spirit Evolution seemed more realer than ever after two years.

The cocoon burst, and there stood a black-armored humanoid lion with a staff.

"Loweemon!" He roared, announcing his presence to the castle invaders.

Immediately, he rammed the blunt side of his lance into the closest Falcomon, who cawed about his newly broken wing.

Aki stood stunned and in awe of the Digimon that was once Koichi.

Loweemon turned to her as he fended off a pesky DemiMeramon with a swat of his hand. "Spirit Evolve!"

She regained her posture a bit, but still looked hesitant. "How?" She said, trying to make herself sound colder, and failing.

Loweemon knocked a Falcomon away. "Just like how Takuya said! Do what I did. The fractal code should appear."

He leaped at one of the Falcomon and kicked the one with the broken wing away.

Aki stared at her hand for a moment, scowling and glaring. When nothing happened, she huffed and put the hand down, and _then_ the ring of fractal code appeared around her hand. Faltering, she brought her D-Tector and her hand together, more smashing them than swiping.

" **Execute! Spirit Evolution!** " She was consumed in a cocoon of data, and the cocoon's height increased a bit. It burst moments later, revealing the new Warrior of Wood.

She was a nymph-like Digimon who's body was made of twisted and swirling branches and twigs. She had hollow eyes with little white dots for pupils and long, flowing dark brown hair. She wore hardened dark leaf armor over her chest and a leaf-armor skirt. Her leaf skirt was designed with the Warrior of Wood's symbol. She had wings made of four large, dark spiky leaves. She had a bow and arrows strapped to her back.

"Nymphmon!" She stretched her arms and fluttered her wings, getting accustomed to her new body.

 _'So she's completely changed from Arbormon, although I guess that should have been expected. I changed from Duskmon to Loweemon,'_ Loweemon mused.

Loweemon stepped back to stand beside her. "Do you know how to fight?"

Nymphmon narrowed her hollow eyes at him. "Of course. I don't need you to teach me _on_ a battlefield." She leaped into the battle, kicking a Falcomon in the face and shouting " **Overgrowth!** ".

The plants that hadn't been burnt by the fire or a DemiMeramon began to shake, and the roots burst out, locking onto the ShadowToyAgumon and trying to choke the building block Digimon. The flowers grew large and grew a fanged mouth, chomping at whoever dared get close.

Loweemon, seeing that Nymphmon could defend herself, turned to Beastmon who was valiantly defending Nyaromon from Peckmon.

" **Vampire Wave!** " She hissed, jumping at Peckmon and trying to bite him but missing.

" **Kunai Wing** **!** " Peckmon flared his wings and sharp, bladed feathers shot at Beastmon.

Loweemon interfered with a " **Shadow Lance!** ". He swung his lance and a shadow blocked the bladed feathers and attacked Peckmon.

Beastmon expressed her gratitude with a nod and picked up Nyaromon, running down the halls and calling for help. Digimon rushed down the hall, digivolving or trying to put out the fire.

Loweemon jumped away from a stray root that was looking for something to attack. He sent a glance at Nymphmon. She was punching and kicking the Falcomon and ShadowToyAgumon. The overgrown roots and plants ignored her, but attacked anything and everything else that moved, even the JewelBeemon.

Loweemon frowned. Usually, attacks didn't effect the user's allies. Loweemon wasn't sure how attacks like that knew who were allies, but that was how it was.

Nymphmon backed up and prepared another attack. " **Stun Pollen!** "

Pollen surrounded her and Loweemon backed up just in case the pollen would effect him too. The enemy Digimon froze up, and Nymphmon wasted no time in hammering them. She even grabbed an arrow and, instead of using the bow, just stabbed a Falcomon in the eye. The Falcomon's color dampened and a fractal code appeared around him.

Suddenly, the armored woman that cackled with electricity appeared beside the Falcomon. She reached out with a manic smile, grabbing the fractal code and shoving it into her mouth. Loweemon watched in horror as she crunched and devoured the fractal code. Nymphmon paused as well and watched with a raised eyebrow, more curious about what the fractal code was and why a Digimon was eating it.

Once she finished eating it, she sighed pleasantly and licked her lips, running her tongue over her fangs. She smiled at Nymphmon and, without warning, punted her directly in the stomach. Nymphmon flew backwards and skidded to a halt in front of Flarerizamon and the rising fire.

 _'If she gets hit by that fire, she's going to be a flayed fish!'_

Loweemon sent a " **Shadow Meteor!** " Flarerizamon's way, and the Champion Digimon was knocked back into the flames, unable to protect itself. Loweemon rushed over to help Nymphmon, knocking a ShadowToyAgumon out of the way. He offered her a hand. She glared at it and pushed herself up, stepping away from the hungry flames. Loweemon frowned. This battle was going to be much more difficult if she refused to cooperate. It was already hard, seeing as her roots had gone wild, although, they were being turned into ash and soot by the fire.

There was a terrified scream, followed by a loud blaring. "We've been breached! We've been breached!"

Loweemon whipped around to see the large dragon Digimon moving down the hallway, knocking away any Ludomon or other castle Digimon that tried to face him. New ShadowToyAgumon and DemiMeramon surrounded the dragon in a defensive perimeter. They were lighting the castle aflame, and the dragon smashed and scrapped the walls with his talons and tail.

"Do you like my companion?" A silky voice asked. Loweemon and Nymphmon spun around to face the speaker. It was the armored lady that had kicked Nymphmon in a surprising show of strength. She had a charming smile that reached to her blood-red cheeks. Seeing as she had devoured her own ally, Loweemon wondered if it actually was blood.

 _'She killed her own ally just like I did,'_ a voice whispered in the back of his head.

"Isn't Soladramon just wonderful? He's so obedient, and he can cause so much damage so quickly!" The Warrior of Thunder copycat admired with a dreamy sigh. She then mock gasped, putting a hand over her mouth. "Oh! How rude of me. I forgot to introduce myself. I am Whaitirimon, Lady of the Thunder." She grinned, showing off her gleaming fangs. "You must be the Legendary Warriors of Darkness and Wood, hmm? How delightful! Master will be pleased to know you finally arrived."

Loweemon's ears twitched. "Master?" He repeated. Of course, there always was someone controlling the lackeys, and Loweemon hoped he could pry some information out of Whaitirimon. She seemed to like to talk. Unfortunately for him, Whaitirimon was clever.

"Yes. Master," she confirmed, giving him an eyeless gaze that made him uncomfortable. "Big, scary, intimidating. I'm sure you've heard all the descriptions before." She cocked her head. "I fear you have much bigger things to concern for now."

"Oh? Like what," Loweemon growled.

She smiled a sickeningly sweet smile. "Don't you know fire burns wood?"

* * *

"We're under attack," Angewomon informed them with a hard look.

"What?!" Takuya exclaimed, along with the others.

"Under attack from what?" Koji asked coldly.

"From those other Warriors I was talking about earlier," Angewomon said, moving towards the door, and Koji noted that the brunette had disappeared from her position next to it. She walked swiftly down the hallways towards the sound of where the explosion had come. Already, Digimon where storming out of their rooms, either to face the battle or to run away and hide. The Legendary Warriors did not hesitate to chase after her. The newer ones followed much more reluctantly.

"I suggest you Spirit Evolve now, Warriors, before we get into the heat of the battle," Angewomon advised as they entered the battlefield. They were in a hallway connecting to an entrance into the palace. The door had been smashed open, letting DarkFloramon, Fugamon and Ogremon run the place a muck.

At Angewomon's word, the experienced Legendary Warriors pulled out their respective D-Tectors. They're voices merged as one as they all called out, " **Execute! Spirit Evolution!** "

Koji was enveloped in a cocoon of data, feeling the familiar rush of Lobomon's power. His body tingled as it changed and grew. His cocoon burst and he made himself known with a call of "Lobomon!".

"Agunimon!" A humanoid Digimon in a black-body suit and red armor and long blonde hair appeared in the place of Takuya.

"Kumamon!" A small bipedal polar bear Digimon with green and orange boats and headband equipped with a rocket launcher took the place of Tommy.

"Kazemon!" A fairy Digimon with long purple hair, butterfly wings, minimal clothing and armor, and a visor fluttered in Zoe's place.

"Beetlemon!" A humanoid blue metal-armored Digimon with a large horn on its head stood in place of JP.

Lobomon was quick to notice the absence of his twin brother's voice or the appearance of a dark lion.

"Wait," the wolf man Digimon said. "Where's Koichi?" The others cast glances around, but the raven-haired, blue-eyed boy was notably absent.

"The brunette's gone too," a voice whispered on Koji's right. He turned around and saw the blue-haired Rana looking down the hall. No one else seemed to hear her except for Yori since he was beside her. Yori had a deep frown and was glancing over his shoulder as if someone would appear behind him.

"We can worry about Koichi later," Beetlemon said. He pointed at the front of the entrance. "We have bigger problems."

There, surveying the damage their mini army was making, was a white ferret with golden gloves and an awfully familiar large-nosed gnome Digimon.

"Grumblemon!" The five Legendary Warriors gasped. At the sound of his name, Grumblemon whipped his gaze to them, narrowing it.

"Well, well, well, what we have here?" Grumblemon jabbed, sneering in an ugly fashion at the Warriors.

Lobomon growled. "Still as illiterate as ever."

The white ferret turned to his comrade. "Friends of yours?" He said in a slow, laid-back voice.

Grumblemon grabbed his hammer. "They no friends of Grumblemon! They take away Grumblemon's status as Legendary Warrior!"

The white ferret nodded. He waved a golden gloved, gray-clawed paw at Grumblemon. "Have fun." He paused. "Should we report them to Master?"

"Grumblemon no care! Grumblemon destroy Warriors now!" Grumblemon declared to his 'friend'.

"Alright, probably won't, but go on," the ferret turned away from his ally and stared back at the scene of destruction. Lobomon, along with some of the other Warriors, raised an eyebrow at that. Did the ferret Digimon not have any faith in his ally?

Grumblemon began rushing through the battle, knocking away any Digimon with his hammer in an attempt to get a clear path to the Warriors.

Agunimon turned to the newest Warriors. "You guys are gonna need to Spirit Evolve."

"How?" Kouta and Yori asked while Rana flinched and looked down at the ground. The other Warriors, Kumamon, Kazemon, and Beetlemon threw themselves into the fray, defending the weaker Digimon and attacking the higher leveled Fugamon and Orgemon.

"Just do what we did," Agunimon instructed and began to show them what to do while occasionally throwing a fireball at any enemy Digimon that got too close for comfort. Lobomon turned away to face Grumblemon as the ugly troll Digimon approached him rapidly. Angewomon through herself into battle as well, with a call of " **Heaven's Charm!** " which effectively took out a good percentage of DarkFloramon.

Lobomon readied his sabers (light swords) just as Grumblemon brought down his hammer. The two clashed, trying to overpower the other, but, as it seemed the ferret had predicted it, Lobomon easily sneaked a kick onto Grumblemon's stomach, knocking him away. Grumblemon pulled himself up and scowled at the Warrior of Light.

" **Lobo Kendo!** " Lobomon sliced at Grumblemon with his sabers and Grumblemon blocked it with his hands, although Lobomon could bet it still stung.

" **Seismic Sledge!** " Grumblemon dropped one of his hands, allowing the saber to cut into his body, and grabbed his hammer, slamming it into Lobomon's side.

As Lobomon slide across the floor, he lifted his wrist and called out " **Howling Laser!** ". The beam nicked Grumblemon's shoulder as he dodged it.

At the same time, two bright lights appeared beside Agunimon, who threw a punch backwards at a Fugamon without even looking.

" **Execute! Spirit Evolution!** " Data cocoons surrounded what Lobomon assumed must have been Kouta and Yori, although he hadn't exactly been paying attention since he was fighting Grumblemon.

The first Digimon to break out from the cocoon was a tall elvish Digimon with pale minty green skin, a pointed green and black wizard's hat that had a golden bell attached at the tip and white spiky hair poking out from underneath. He had pointed elf-like ears, bright red lipstick, a silver mask with three spikes at the edges of it and dark red eyes that were almost _too_ human-like. He wore green, golden and silver old-fashioned clothing and had a mirror attached to the clothing on his stomach and pointed green shoes with silver gems and golden stripes. He had a thin devil's tail, and a silver shield with a mirror attached to a strap on his back. Lastly, he had one red shoulder pad on his right shoulder that had the Warrior of Steel's symbol on it.

The other Digimon was similar to what one might think a caveman looked like. He was a very human-like Digimon decked out in animal and Digimon skins. He had a Leomon hide on his shoulder, and the hide wrapped around his body in a form of clothing. He wore a deer mask that covered the top part of his face, hiding his eyes, and showing his tiny fanged mouth. The middle of the deer's head had the symbol for the Warrior of Earth. He had knuckle braces with claws attached to them and armored orange shoes with claws poking out of them. He held a giant, spiked wooden club in his left hand.

"Leeremon!"

"Hantamon!"

Leeremon, the elvish Digimon and presumably Kouta, immediately launched forward with a surprisingly menacing war cry, summoning two reinforced katanas with a call of " **Silbernes Schwert!** " and slicing two Ogremon perfectly in half, allowing their fractal code to appear. Leeremon dived into the fray without a single thought, taking on whoever faced him.

Hantamon, however, hesitated, and only rushed forward when Agunimon was getting swarmed by stubborn DarkFloramon who refused to stay down despite the advantage Agunimon had against them. With a " **Jagar Kick!** " to the face, some of them turned into silhouettes and fractal code.

The ground below Lobomon rumbled, and the tiles of the floor cracked. Lobomon quickly jumped out of the way, just as Grumblemon appeared with his hammer and a shout of " **Jack in the Box!** ". He slammed his hammer into the ground of where Lobomon had been moments ago.

"How are you here? I thought your Spirits were purified!" Lobomon growled, taking a defensive stance. "The Spirits of Earth are with Yori right now."

Grumblemon smirked, or maybe scowled; it was hard to tell with his big nose in the way. "You think me only corruption of Earth Spirit? Me is independent Digimon!"

"Really? Then why are you always someone's lackey?" Lobomon taunted. Grumblemon grunted and charged at Lobomon, swinging his hammer. Lobomon dodged the attack and sent a " **Howling Laser!** " his way. Grumblemon dug back into the ground to avoid the laser. He popped up behind Lobomon and gave him a firm whack on his back. Lobomon rolled to the ground, before swiftly picking himself up.

" **Lobo Kendo!** " Lobomon missed Grumblemon by an inch as the troll Digimon leaped away. Grumblemon paused, his gaze flickering to the side. He smirked.

"If me can't steal your Spirits, I'll steal human!"

"Huh?" Lobomon hesitated.

Grumblemon suddenly lurched to the side, and Lobomon caught sight of what, or whom, he was talking about. Rana had not Spirit Evolved and was instead hanging at the back, away from the battle. As her eyes caught sight of the former Warrior of Earth launching towards her, she stiffened, blue eyes going wide with fear, and took a step back. Grumblemon's hammer was in his left hand and his other hand was out-stretched to snatch her. Lobomon intercepted the troll, making his sabers into an 'x' and pushing Grumblemon backwards.

"You need to Spirit Evolve!" Lobomon warned. Rana did not respond, she merely grasped her hand with her other hand and rubbed it with a worried and fearful expression.

 _'Oh for Ophanimon's sake, she's useless!'_ Lobomon couldn't help but inwardly think. _'How much persuasion does this girl_ need _to do something?!_ _'_

Lobomon kicked Grumblemon in the face, and the troll whined, rubbing his sore nose.

"Ow! Grumblemon get you back for that!" He said, grabbing his hammer and whirling it into Lobomon's side. Lobomon grunted as he smashed into the ground.

" **Howling Laser!** " Lobomon lifted himself up, again, and knocked Grumblemon back a few paces. He stood in front of Rana.

"You need to Spirit Evolve right _now_ , Rana, or else he's just going to take you and you're not going to be much help then!" _'Not like you're much help now._ _'_ Lobomon went to bash Grumblemon in the face again, but he grabbed Lobomon's foot and tossed him to the side. Lobomon rolled, again, before using his sabers to stop himself. Grumblemon reached forward to grab Rana, but it seemed she finally made up her mind, as she grabbed her blue D-Tector and slashed the fractal code around her hand.

" **Execute! Spirit Evolution!** " Her voice cried out softly. The cocoon of data was swift to surround her. Lobomon used this as an opportunity to give Grumblemon a solid " **Howling Laser!** " to the face. Grumblemon stumbled back, sliding on the ground and gripping his burning face. Grumblemon sneered at Lobomon, who sneered right back.

Rana's Spirit Evolution finished, but Lobomon didn't get a chance to look at her new form, because Grumblemon distracted him with a " **Seismic Sledge!** ". Lobomon countered with his " **Lobo Kendo!** " and they had a battle for power, again, before they both stepped away. Lobomon cast a glance behind him, expecting to see the new Warrior of Water, but there was only a blue blur and then whatever had come from the Spirit Evolution was gone and didn't return.

There was suddenly a loud blaring. "We've been breached! We've been breached!" A voice over the intercoms shouted.

Grumblemon gave a devious smirk. The ferret, who had been lazing at the back of the fighting, perked up, his thin paper-like square ears going erect. He stared out into the corridors, before turning around and retreating into the outside. The other enemy Digimon, on the other hand, began to rush forward, ignoring their sparring partners. They flooded the corridors and hallways and mercilessly stampeded any Digimon who opposed them to death.

"This no good for you," Grumblemon stated, before giving a cry of " **Slide Evolution!** " and turning into the spiky body of Gigasmon. He burrowed into the ground and began digging forward, entering the hallways.

"Fire, fire!" A Digimon shouted while many screams filled the air. It was moments later when smoke began to turn around the corners, quickly followed by the flames. Tiny balls of flame known as DemiMeramon lit up the place with cheery grins like the pyromaniacs they were.

The seven Legendary Warriors grouped up, along with Angewomon. They all gaped as Angewomon's palace and the Digimon inside were burnt to a crisp.

"No!" Agunimon shouted, with Hantamon and Beetlemon at his side. "We have to do something!"

Kumamon attempted to freeze the fire with a " **Crystal Breeze** " although the ice just melted into water, and then the water evaporated due to the heat. Kazemon sent some wind at the fire and tried to make it back up, but it did nothing.

 _'If only we had the Warrior of Water,'_ Lobomon thought sourly. _'Where did she go?'_

The walls of the castle were knocked over and cracked by the enemy Digimon, who then escaped when the fire got too great for them, unless they were fire Digimon.

"They never attack from the East," Angewomon mumbled to herself. "This must have been a diversion." She turned to the Legendary Warriors.

"Warriors, you must go," Angewomon said, nursing an injured wing. "This palace is no more. You must protect yourselves until you are at full strength again."

"No!" The original Warriors cried.

"We can't leave you, Angewomon!" Kazemon said, fluttering crookedly due to an injury she sustained in her side.

"You must," Angewomon insisted. "I will be fine. You must find the new Warriors' Beast Spirits. Go to MagnaAngemon's palace first. You will find Bokomon and Neemon there as well."

"She's right," Hantamon spoke up, his voice deeper as a Digimon. "We can't do much about the flames. I'd rather we all escape with our lives than burn uselessly in a fire."

Leeremon nodded, his devil's tail wagging back and forth. The mask gave him a firm yet carefree look. "Going in there is basically just giving up."

"As much as I hate to say it, they're right guys," Beetlemon sighed. "We can't do anything."

Agunimon growled. "But we can't just give up..." He dropped his head in defeat.

A thought suddenly struck Lobomon. "What about Koichi?"

The Warriors looked at him.

"I'm sure he can handle himself," Kazemon reassured. She gave a hesitant sigh. "For now... We have to retreat with what Digimon we can save right now."

Numbly, they all agreed and began to collect the whimpering in-trainings that had hidden from the attack, and then they took off into the woods.

* * *

The fire surrounded them almost instantly at Whaitirimon's words. Nymphmon's arm caught on fire and she struggled to put it out. Whaitirimon's laughter could be heard from the other side of the cackling flames. Smoke filled Loweemon's lungs, but he ran over to assist Nymphmon. It was hard to put out fire on wood with other wood, as proven when she tried to slap the fire out with her hand, only for that hand to catch on fire. Fortunately, she _was_ a Legendary Warrior, so her wooden body had an almost armor-like quality to it, so she wouldn't be turned into ash that easily. Loweemon grabbed her arm and ignored the sting and bristling heat from the fire as he snuffed the oxygen away from the fire.

Once Nymphmon was clear of any fire and stuck in the middle of the ring of flames as to not get burned again, Loweemon tried looking for a way out. The flames were everywhere though, and quickly eating up the roots of fallen plants from Nymphmon's Overgrowth attack. The fire was approaching them steadily, and the smoke was entering their lungs as well, so if they didn't burn to death, they would die from smoke inhalation.

" **Shadow Meteor!** " Loweemon tried, hoping the blast would knock away the flames and create a path. It did, but only for a few seconds.

 _'It'll be risky, but it's our only chance,'_ Loweemon thought. He turned to Nymphmon, who was just scowling angrily at the flames, unhappy that she couldn't do anything.

"Nymphmon," he called. She turned around to look at him. Loweemon noticed the tips of her wings were scorched. "I've got a way to get us out, but you're going to have to be swift."

She gave a curt nod and walked over to Loweemon. Loweemon turned back to the flames and shot another " **Shadow Meteor!** " at the fire. The path was clear, the flames diverting from the pulsing dark energy. Nymphmon immediately jumped into action, dashing through the flames. Loweemon quickly followed, but the wall of flames was great in width, and they both barely made it out. Nymphmon's wing tips and hair caught on fire again, and Loweemon had had his whole back in the flames, burning his armor and seeping in-between the cracks of his armor and scorching his flesh. He let out a roar of pain.

Nymphmon flapped her wings and swung her head, trying to put out the flames. Suddenly, she paused, and then out-stretched her arms. Her fingers tips were encased in pink.

" **Support Bubble!** " A pink bubble quickly made its presence known. The flames caught inside the bubble died down a bit, but didn't fade away completely. The fire on Nymphmon's wings and hair disappeared. Loweemon felt the awful burning sensation decrease and his muscles relaxed. Power drummed through him.

 _'This is a very useful attack. We don't usually have supportive attacks like this,'_ Loweemon pondered. Nymphmon also had Stun Pollen, which, very obviously, paralyzed the enemy. _'I guess she's more of a support Warrior than a fighter.'_

Once they both regained enough strength, Loweemon let lose another " **Shadow Meteor!** " into the flames, and they repeated the process of running through the flames and summoning a Support Bubble. It took three more goes of this, and a lot more burns, for them to finally breach into the outside world, and escape the flames. Loweemon let out a sigh of relief.

Loweemon immediately got back to business though. "We need to find the others."

Nymphmon cast a glance over her shoulder as she rubbed her burned arm gingerly, wincing in pain. "Why?"

Loweemon was stunned at her question. "What do you mean 'why'? Why wouldn't we?"

"They're probably fine, or dead," Nymphmon said curtly. "We'll find them or their dead bodies eventually."

Loweemon couldn't believe her. "I- You know what? I'm going to go search for them. Follow or don't." Loweemon didn't want to leave her, in case she got involved in another fire attack, but he was also concerned for his friends' and brother's safety. Hopefully, she'd follow him.

Loweemon began to head for the forest, leaving the Support Bubble. For a long moment, he didn't hear any sign of Nymphmon following him, before the soft flapping of wings signified she was flying after him.

Loweemon turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow. "Doesn't it hurt to fly with singed wings?"

Nymphmon landed beside him and gave him a light scowl. "I'm fine."

Loweemon just sighed. This was going to be a long day.

* * *

 **Please leave a review or any other kid of support! Tell me what you think of Aki and the others!**


	3. 3: Getting Along

_**Chapter Three: Getting Along**_

Out of all of them, Tommy was the least exhausted. While he was bearing a cut on his left arm and a bruise on his forehead, he didn't have it as bad as Zoe, who had a large gash in her side that was currently being tended too. Koji and Takuya had bruises all over them, but no injuries. Yori and Kouta, as the newest members, had been practically dying from exhaustion, but had stayed away from most of the major fighting, although Kouta had barely scrapped by when he got caught between Tommy and two Orgemon's fight. JP had gotten burned, and then received a cut over that burn, by a Flarerizamon when he had been trying to persuade a Bukamon to come out from hiding. Many Digimon had hidden out with the Warriors, but once they had been treated a few Rookies and a Champion had taken a majority of the in-trainings and began to walk to the nearest village. The weakest and the stubborn in-trainings were left with the Warriors. Angewomon had disappeared once the Warriors had fled to the forest, so they had no idea where she had gone. They had also lost Koichi, Rana and the brunette. It had been roughly an hour since the fight, and they were watching Lady Angewomon's castle burn to the ground. Some evil Digimon where still running around the place, fire Digimon especially.

"'M sorry," the Bukamon was mumbling to JP again. JP gave a sigh.

"It's alright, you can stop apologizing," JP responded, patting the the gray seal Digimon. The Bukamon nuzzled JP's side. The young in-training Digimon blamed himself for JP getting hurt.

Tommy's attention was caught by a small human figure approaching timidly from the North (direction of the castle).

"Rana?" Tommy blinked, gaining the other Legendary Warriors' attention as well. The blue-haired girl shrunk, bowing her head and gazing guiltily off to the side.

"Where _were_ you?!" Koji immediately spat, glaring at the girl. Zoe sent him a warning glance, although she was curious, and a bit suspicious, as well.

Rana mumbled something inaudible, curling in on herself and letting her hair hang over her head. Upon closer inspection, Tommy say tiny tear drops forming in her eyes.

"What?" Takuya prompted.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, cringing.

"Sorry for... what?" Zoe asked, while Koji muttered, "You should be."

Rana messed with her bracelet. "I-I r-ran a-a-aw-way c-c-cause I d-d-didn't kn-know h-how t-to f-figh-ht," she stammered.

Zoe sighed to mask her irritance, and gave the other girl a small, forced smile. "That's alright. We didn't expect you to fight if you didn't know how."

Tommy felt that her statement was untrue, at least, for Koji and Takuya, and even Tommy himself. Koji was most definitely expecting her to have at least tried to help out in the battle, and Takuya would have probably persuaded her to do so. Tommy felt a bit in the middle. He didn't want to force her, but she could have at least tried.

Rana's eyes caught on Zoe's bandaged side. Blood was seeping through. Rana winced.

Kouta spoke up from where he laid against a tree beside two DemiVeemon. "Cut her some slack. We were all startled. I mean, are all your battles this bloody?"

"Not usually," Takuya said. "At least, not from the start."

"Last time we first got here, we were attacked by Cerberumon, but we ended up fine," JP added.

"We were dropped here in the middle of a war," Tommy said knowledgeably. He rubbed his aching arm.

They all settled down, trying to comfort the in-training Digimon and keep their wounds clean. It was only a few minutes after Rana's arrival that Yori spotted a black humanoid lion and what he described as a brown tree fairy heading their way. The Legendary Warriors immediately recognized the lion as Loweemon, Koichi's Digimon Human Form, and their guess was that the "brown tree fairy" was the new Warrior of Wood.

"Hey! Guys! Koichi!" Takuya called out loudly, practically screaming, and waving his arms frantically and annoyingly. That got their attention pretty quick, along with Koji's who told him to shut up, and the Warriors of Darkness and Wood made their way over to the group of Warriors and in-trainings in less than a minute.

Once they were safely and assuredly with the others, they both dedigivolved back to being human. Tommy couldn't stop his eyes from widening in shock. The brunette's arm had been scorched worse than JP's burn. Her Digimon form had taken most of the damage like a shield, but the burns still carried over, albeit less extreme. Her left hand's palm had been burnt as well, and the burns from her wings carried over onto her shoulders and arms, peaking out from her sleeves and were presumably hidden under her shirt. Koichi also winced and stumbled, and burns showed from under his clothing too.

Yori, Zoe and Koji rushed to help them.

"Geez, where you guys caught in the middle of the fire or something?" Kouta raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, actually," Koichi answered and Koji gave him a worried look. Koichi took off his black shirt, revealing he had a terribly scorched back. Luckily, they weren't 3rd degree burns since his Digimon form had armor, and since, like with the brunette, his Digimon form protected them from any of the direct damage. Yori fussed over the brunette silently, before Zoe shooed him away so she could take the brunette further into the woods so her burns could be taken care of without the "wandering eyes of boys" as Zoe put it. It was a good thing one of the Rookies had fetched a first-aid kit for them, or else they wouldn't have ointment to treat the burns or bandages to wrap the wounds.

Once everyone was treated, and then double-checked by the insistence of Zoe, which was ironic, because under the burn victims, she had the worst wound, they all settled down, again. Deciding they needed food and water, they sent Yori, Takuya and Tommy to get water from a nearby stream that one of the DemiVeemon insisted they knew where it was while Kouta and Koji searched for berries and meat apples to eat. Kouta was a boy scout of many years, so he knew what berries were good and which were not, although this was the Digital World, so who knew. They had to explain the concept of meat apples to the four new ones, and, while the brunette and Yori had raised eyebrows in disbelief, Kouta had rolled over laughing.

DemiVeemon had lead them in circles, but he kept insisting they were going the right way.

"Are you sure we should be listening to a young child?" Yori questioned as they walked past the same rock for the umpteenth time.

Takuya shrugged. "We don't have any other lead to a water source."

Tommy sighed. The DemiVeemon was bouncing with energy as he hoped onto a rock. "Are you sure this is the right way?" Tommy asked him.

DemiVeemon gave an energetic bounce. "I'm sure, I'm sure, I'm sure! Oh, I can hear the water, I can hear it!"

The DemiVeemon was off in a flash again, steering off to the left. Takuya groaned and dashed after the in-training, Tommy and Yori sluggishly at his heels.

"DemiVeemon! Please slow down!" Takuya called. "It's getting annoying to have to chase after you," Takuya added silently.

DemiVeemon hopped and spun in a circle, giggling at the humans. "This way, this way!" The Digimon sang, hopping about. There was a collective sigh from the human children as they followed the lively in-training.

Yori glanced up at the sky. "Don't you find it odd that we were kidnapped at night but it's daytime right now?"

"Kidnapped?" Takuya blinked, looking at the pale-haired boy peculiarly. "We weren't kidnapped."

"Well if the angel... if Angewomon didn't 'summon' us like she did with you guys last time, then we came here against our will," Yori stated.

"I guess that's true," Takuya murmured with a frown.

"It's daytime 'cause the Digital World runs on a different time schedule than the Real World," Tommy explained. Yori tilted his head.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, so when a day's passed here, a few seconds have gone by in our world," Tommy continued.

Yori gave a confused frown. "So a month could pass with us stuck here and it'd only be an hour that we were gone in our world?"

"Yep," Tommy confirmed with a nod. "I know it's weird, but at least we aren't actually gone for a whole month. Our parents would freak out!"

"Mine freak out when I'm gone for more than two hours," Takuya said with a small smile. Yori didn't acknowledge him as he seemed lost in his own thoughts.

"Water! Water! I've found the water!" A voice squealed up ahead.

"Wha-? Wait, really?" Takuya stumbled, before sprinting over to DemiVeemon. He was jumping up and down next to a... Really small pond of water.

"You said it was a stream!" Takuya said exasperatedly.

DemiVeemon giggled. "A pond to you is a stream to me!"

Takuya scowled at the little blue Digimon. Tommy walked up to the one he thought of as a big brother figure.

"At least we _have_ a water source," Tommy assured him. "Come on, let's get the water." Takuya's shoulders drooped in defeat and he took one of three canteens from Yori. They only had three canteens total, so they were going to have to share the water between the ten of them, and any in-training Digimon that stuck with them. They all scooped up some water and made sure the canteens were filled to the top. Then, as to not waste water, they took some sips from the pond to quell their thirst. DemiVeemon happily rolled around in the pond.

"Hey! Don't ruin the water," Takuya scolded. DemiVeemon just giggled at him and splashed the water, sprinkling it over the three humans.

The three Warriors and in-training Digimon made their way back to the group, although it took awhile due to the fact they had gone in circles most of the time just finding the pond.

The others had already started eating. Kouta was curiously taking bites of meat apples, experimenting with what flavor he could get. He gave the uneaten parts of the apples to the in-training Digimon who munched on them happily. The others ate a mixture of berries and cooked meat apples. They had a fire started in the middle of their makeshift clearing.

Takuya handed Zoe his canteen first, and she drank a small sip before moving onto the in-training and making sure none of them took too much water or spilled it. Yori handed the brunette, of whom Tommy still didn't know the name of, his although she seemed reluctant to drink the water. Tommy handed his to JP with a friendly smile.

"Thanks bud," JP said, taking a gulp of water and wiping his mouth with his sleeve.

Tommy grinned at his friend, settling down beside him. "No problem."

JP handed Tommy a handful of berries. Tommy took them graciously and ate most of them. He ended up giving some to a begging-but-trying-to-look-like-he-wasn't-begging Bukamon.

There was an awkward silence that enveloped the group, save for the sounds of eating and the squeals of the in-training.

Tommy looked at the four new Warriors. He didn't know what to think. A stubborn part of him wanted to believe they only needed six Warriors, but he knew that wasn't true. More Warriors meant more fighting power. But more Warriors also meant more conflict and trying to get along with each other. The six original Warriors got along well with each other, but its not like they were perfectly meshed together. Koji had his ups and downs, and Koichi used to get so depressed and distant that it was sometimes irritating. Zoe would also yell at Takuya for being late a lot, although Tommy found it humorous. But they all still loved each other. The new Warriors definitely had their problems. Kouta seemed alright. Tommy was especially ecstatic about the Kouta joining because he was pretty sure Kouta was younger than him, or about the same age as him. Yori was also pretty okay, although Tommy could tell from the way he looked around that he was skeptical and unsure of the world. Rana was a gray area. She was obviously anxious, shy and self-conscious, but she was also a bit spineless having just ran away from battle. Tommy understood she was probably just frightened and that she didn't know how to fight, but still, she could have at least stuck around to help save the in-trainings stuck in the fire. Then there was the brunette, who he seriously had to ask the name of. She was definitely a Koji 2.0. She was indifferent, cold and a loner. Where as Rana had left because she was startled, the brunette had deliberately left, and while Tommy didn't want to jump to conclusions, he was sure she had either left because she thought the others were useless or because she didn't want to be around them.

If they all were going to work together, they would need to get to know each other first.

"Hey, guys," Tommy said, gaining their attention. "Why don't we introduce ourselves?"

Kouta immediately perked up. "Good idea! I don't even know half of you."

Koichi gave Tommy a warm smile that Tommy shyly returned.

"Oo! I wanna go first!" Takuya stated, waving his hands. He gave his typical lop-sided grin. "I'm Takuya Kanbara, the Warrior of Fire, sometimes called the Warrior of Flame, and I'm totally awesome! My Human Spirit is Agunimon while my Beast Spirit is BurningGreymon." Takuya tilted his head with a thoughtful look. "Hmm. I like to play soccer and I've gotten into baseball once or twice. I've got a little brother named Shinya, he's eleven years old. Any questions for yours truly?"

"One," Koji said, leaning against a tree. "Do you ever shut up?"

Takuya glared at the bandanna wearing boy. "Oh, and your sooo cool, Koji."

Koji smirked. "Thank you."

"That was sarcastic!"

Tommy giggled as the two fell back into their routine of squabbling. Zoe sighed, although she had an amused smile on her face.

"Will you two ever stop fighting?"

"Never!" They both responded, although they both had good-hearted, goofy grins on their faces.

"Well, if you two are done, I might as well introduce myself," JP said. He was sitting to the left of Takuya, so Tommy guessed they were going to go in a circle, which made Tommy up next after JP. JP continued. "I'm Junpei Shibayama, but everyone calls me JP except for my parents. I'm the Warrior of Thunder, and my Spirits are Beetlemon and MetalKabuterimon. I got into boxing last year, and I help out my uncle with construction work sometimes." He nodded to Tommy, signifying that he could go.

Tommy straightened his posture. "Hi, I'm Tomoki Himi, but like JP everyone calls me Tommy. I'm the Warrior of Ice. My Spirits are Kumamon and Korikakumon. I've got an older brother named Yutaka, and he's a little hard on me, but he's alright." Tommy paused. What else was there to say? What interests did he have? "I like to play soccer mainly because of Takuya." Tommy grinned at the Warrior of Fire. "He's basically like a second older brother to me."

"Aw, thanks little buddy," Takuya said, returning his grin. Tommy blushed a little bit.

"And I love video games!" Tommy continued. "I'm the best at them. I've beaten every video game I've owned." Tommy tilted his head. "I think that's all."

All eyes turned to Koji, who was next in line.

"Koji Minamoto, Warrior of Light," he introduced curtly. "Spirits are Lobomon and KendoGarurumon. I'm a kendo master." There was a silence as they waited for him to continue, before realizing he wasn't going to.

"Well geez, at least give us an interesting fact," Takuya mumbled.

Koji raised an eyebrow. "I have a dog."

Koichi chuckled. "Excuse my twin. I'm Koichi Kimura, the Warrior of Darkness. My Spirits are Loweemon and JagerLoweemon. I live with my mother. I don't have many hobbies."

"Who's older?" Kouta asked.

"That doesn't matter, we're twins. We were born-"

"Me," Koichi interrupted with a mischievous smile as his brother glared daggers at him.

"Your last names are different?" Rana piped up from where she had been quietly hiding next to a tree. She was playing with her bracelet like usual.

"Yes, our parents are divorced," Koji said sharply.

"Oh." Rana looked down at the ground. "S-sorry."

"'S alright," Koichi assured her.

There was a moment of silence, before they all turned their attention to the brunette who sat a bit away from Koichi and next to Yori. Her green eyes flashed with irritance and hostility.

"My name's Aki," she said coldly, as if they weren't privileged to know. At least she had put more sentence structure into it than Koji. "I'm the Warrior of Wood, apparently. I only have one Spirit, Nymphmon, but I suppose I'll be getting another one. That's it."

"Wow, we can't even know you're full name?" Yori gasped in a strange humorous way that made the others look at him funnily. In the short time they'd known him, he hadn't seemed like the joking type. And especially not the kind to joke with, or maybe at, someone like Aki, or Koji.

She glared at him. "No, you don't need to. And it's not like I have any nicknames either."

"Yeah, with a name like 'Aki' your only options are 'A' or 'Ack'," Yori joked. Tommy cracked a smile and Zoe giggled.

Yori looked at them with a hesitant smile. "I'm Yori Domen, the... Warrior of Earth, I think it was?"

Tommy noticed Koichi look between Aki and Yori with a curious frown.

Yori shrugged his shoulders. "My... Spirit was, uh, Hantamon." He cracked a smile, looking at Aki from the corner of his vision. "I've got a biiiig family. So many cousins, gosh, I can't even remember them all." Aki rolled her eyes in response like she was bored.

The rest of the Warriors looked at each other in confusion. What was with the sudden joking Yori was doing, and the looks?

"In all serious, though, I've got two younger brothers, Kaito and Touma. They're nice although Touma throws temper tantrums and Kaito acts like he's better than everybody." Tommy recognized the look of homesickness in Yori's eyes. Tommy remembered how clearly he had wanted to go home last time he was in the Digital World. He had even run on the Trailmon tracks that floated above emptiness.

"I'm Kouta Maekawa, like I said earlier! I'm eleven, and I've got a lot of siblings," Kouta said cheerily, and Tommy almost missed the sad flicker in his eyes. "I've got an older brother and sister who take care of us 'cause my mum and dad are always working. They're names are Kuto and Bebe. They're really cool! Then there's my older brother Sammy, who's two years older than me. We always call him Hammy though, just 'cause he hates it!" There was a pause in Kouta's words, even as he kept smiling. "I've got twin sisters!" He looked at Koichi and Koji with a bright smile. "They're nine months old! Gosh, they're the cutest things! I miss them already. They're names are Yuki and Yami." Kouta blinked. "Oh, I forgot to do the thing! I'm the Warrior of... Steel and my Spirit was, uh, Leeremon? I think. I dunno."

They all absorbed the information. Kouta sure could talk very quickly. He seemed very passionate about his family. Tommy couldn't imagine having that many siblings!

Zoe took over next.

"I'm Izumi Orimoto, though you can just call me Zoe, and I'm the Warrior of Wind!" Zoe introduced herself with a flick of her long blonde hair. "My Spirits are Kazemon and Zephyrmon! I'm Italian, molto bene, on my mother's side. I've played soccer once or twice, and I joined softball last year. And as a fun fact, I've never been on a roller coaster." Zoe gave them all a beaming smile.

Lastly, it was Rana's turn. She shrunk in on herself, like she seemed to do a lot, and fiddled with her bracelet, which she also seemed to do a lot.

"U-um... I'm Rana Hamada, ah, I'm th-the Warrior of W-Water..." She looked at her bracelet, trying to find the right words to say. "M-my mom and dad are r-really cool." She gave a timid smile. "Th-they're dreamers who dreamed too big." She hugged the blue bracelet with her hand, cradling it and rubbing the beads. "...I like the color blue," she finished.

There was another pause of silence before the Bukamon lying beside JP and Tommy spoke up.

"I wanna go! I wanna go!" Bukamon squealed, flying around the heads of JP, Tommy and Takuya.

"Alright, alright, go," Takuya said with a smile, playfully swatting the in-training away.

"I'm Bukamon! My momma says that if I dream really hard, then the dream comes true! And it did!" Bukamon grinned.

"Oh? What was your dream?" Kouta asked.

"That I'd meet the Legendary Warriors!" Bukamon chirped, buzzing around JP's head. "And I did! You guys are cool!" He paused before JP, frowning at the bandages wrapped around his side. "Sorry."

"I already said it's fine," JP reassured the in-training Digimon. Bukamon gave him a smile.

Soon, though, the other in-training Digimon all wanted to introduce themselves, and they all talked over each other too. The Warriors began to chat amongst each other, with the exception of the shy Rana and the hostile Aki. At one point, Kouta asked to know more about the Digital World and Digimon, since the four of them were really quite behind on the knowledge of the DigiWorld. They spent the rest of the day filling Kouta and the other three in on everything they knew about the Digital World. When nighttime came, they assigned guard shifts, and were off to sleep.

* * *

 **I hope nothing was confusing or will be confusing! Everything at the beginning is a little weirdly placed with me scrambling to get everything I want in... You'll see that especially next chapter!**

 **Please leave a review!**


	4. 4: Training's in Session

**_Chapter Four: Training's in Session_**

"Ow!"

"Hold still," Zoe commanded, wrapping a bandage with ointment slathered on it around Aki's burnt arm. "This would be much easier if you stopped squirming."

Aki frowned, but she still winced as the paste touched her arms.

 _'For someone who was burned and didn't so much as blink, she sure does whine a lot for something as simple as ointment,'_ Zoe thought with a sigh.

"There," Zoe said, smoothing out the bandages. "I'm done. You can stop whining."

Aki sent her a cold glare and retreated her arm. She grabbed her green shirt and pulled it over her head, dusting it off. She stood up, acting high and mighty, but Zoe could tell from the way she wobbled and the way her shoulders arched that the 2nd degree burns must have her screaming silently in pain. Zoe hadn't spent two years being useless, after all. She had taken classes on physiological behavior and on physical fitness and health in case she ever needed to go back to the Digital World. They all had. They never really believed that they'd actually be called back to the Digital World, though.

Zoe touched her own wound gently. Experience from being the Digital World had toughened her up, so she could endure a lot more. Even so, it still stung and she couldn't help but wince. Thanks to the qualities of the Digital World, her wound was healing quickly, and had reduced to half its original size. It was practically just a scratch with a bunch of dried blood around it.

Aki leaned against a tree and stared off into the distance as she waited for Zoe to treat her own wound. Zoe unwrapped the bandages around her mid-waist, making sure to check for any signs of infection in the wound and cleaning the wound with water. Satisfied, she wrapped on new bandages after applying antibiotic ointment into the wound. She pulled her purple t-shirt over herself and then put on her patchy purple jacket that she hadn't worn in a year. Strange how whatever brought them here had put them in decent enough, color-coded clothes from their own closets. She severely hoped their 'kidnapper', as Yori put it, hadn't been a perverted peeping tom. She rummaged through the first aid kit. She grabbed the aspirin.

"Hey, do you want something to reduce the pain?" She asked Aki. Aki glowered at her. "Staring at me in distaste is not an answer," Zoe said sarcastically.

Aki shifted, and Zoe watched her grimace, and then proceed to say, "No."

"Really?" Zoe raised an eyebrow. "You were _burned_ in a fire. Are you sure you don't need aspirin?" Aki didn't respond, just looked coolly off to the side. "What, too good for aspirin?" Zoe quirked her head. "Do you not like medicine, or something? ...Are you afraid of doctors?"

Aki turned to her with a raised eyebrow, trying to convey how stupid she found the idea, but Zoe could see right through her, just by the fact she had responded to the question. "No."

Zoe smirked. "Scared of the needles?" Aki shuffled her feet a little bit with a frown, before stopping herself. Zoe suppressed a giggle. "Ah, don't worry, I wasn't a fan of the doctor either 'til a few years ago. I used to kick and scream and I even played dead once." Zoe raised the aspirin. "So, are you going to take the aspirin or not, Miss Emotionless?"

Aki let out a defeated sigh. "Fine. Is it pills?"

Zoe frowned. "What?"

"The aspirin. Is it the swallowing pills?"

"Uh, yeah?" Zoe looked at her in confusion. "Why, what do you mean?"

Aki favored looking at the ground. "Do you have chewable ones or liquid ones?"

"Uh," Zoe glanced into the med kit. "Uh, no? Why does that matter?"

Aki scrunched up her nose. "Just preference... I've never... I've never... actually managed to swallow."

Zoe couldn't stop herself from bursting out laughing this time. Aki looked at her startled before trying to hide a blush.

"So you're a spitter not a swallower, eh?" Zoe teased. Aki went red.

"That is- That is not what I meant," Aki said flustered but tried to compose herself by placing a stern frown on her face.

Zoe let out one last chuckle before standing up and handing Aki some of the aspirin. "Sorry, couldn't resist. If I'm honest, I'm a fan of dirty humor." She pushed a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. "Here, you can try to swallow these, at least. When was the last time you even tried to swallow them?"

Aki, in a hesitant way, glared at her. Zoe was starting to think that glaring was just her way of looking at you. She fiddled with the pill in her hand. "When I was nine."

"You're probably able to now. It was just your nine-year-old mine tricking you into thinking you were going to choke, or something," Zoe comforted her. Aki just stared at her before slowly popping the pill into her mouth and timidly swallowing with a scowl.

"See, you're fine, you big baby," Zoe said teasingly. At that, Aki gave her the harshest glare she could, but Zoe just laughed and waved her off. Zoe walked over to the med kit and began to clean up, closing it.

"Let's head back before the others think we've been attacked," Zoe suggested. Aki gave a grunt of agreement. The two girls collected the old bandages and disposed of them before going back to the clearing where everyone had settled. They planned on moving today, but with four injured and about six in-trainings, it was going to be slow and difficult. Not to mention, JP had suggested training the new additions to the Legendary Warriors just in case they were attacked again. It had been odd that they had been able to stake out in the woods without so much as a peep from the enemies.

They both returned to the group, where everyone was chatting quietly, with the exclusion of Koji and Takuya who were arguing over something Zoe already knew would be stupid and pointless. Koichi and Tommy were giggling beside them, which only confirmed Zoe's theory. JP was impressing Bukamon and the other in-trainings with simple magic tricks, something he had gotten good at over the years. Rana was quietly hiding beside a bush, plucking grass and weeds. Yori was chatting with Kouta although the younger boy seemed more interested in the two DemiVeemon that insisted on playing with him. Zoe had noticed that Yori had gravitated towards the younger kids, mainly Kouta. Except for Aki, who he seemed to try and crack jokes with despite her cold demeanor, he was tight-lipped and really only talked to the others to inquire about the Digital World. Zoe was pretty sure he still felt this was all a really weird, very real-feeling dream.

Aki retreated to sit near Rana, leaning against a tree and looking off into the distance with a stoic expression. Zoe headed over towards Takuya and Koji. With a sigh, she addressed the squabbling boys.

"What are you arguing over this time?"

"Nothing!" Takuya and Koji both answered heatedly, glaring at each other.

"They're arguing over their fashion choices," Tommy giggled, a hand over his mouth. Zoe raised an eyebrow and put her hand on her hip.

"Really? Again? How many times have you two argued over this?" Zoe said exasperated.

"But he said that the Digital World must really hate me if it brought me here with my goggles!" Takuya whined.

Koji raised an eyebrow. "And you told me that I must hate myself since I wear my bandanna half of the time."

Zoe raised a hand to stop them from breaking out into an argument again. "Save it. I don't want to hear 'he said, he said'. We don't have time for this." She let out another sigh. "Are we gonna travel or train today?"

Takuya, Koji, Koichi and Tommy all blinked. Clearly, they had been too wrapped in arguing or giggling at the two idiots arguing that they had forgot to think about what they were doing today. Zoe let out out a sigh to show her exasperation, but she couldn't help but smile. They might be idiots, but they were her idiots.

"Well, I suggest we move. I want to get to Seraphi- er, MangaAngemon's castle and get some more information on this whole situation. Plus I wanna see Bokomon and Neemon," Zoe pitched.

"I don't want to waste time waiting," Koji agreed, nodding and getting serious.

"I kinda wanna train, 'cause I haven't been Kumamon in a long time. I feel kinda rusty. At least, for a little bit," Tommy added. "Although, I do wanna see Bokomon and Neemon..."

"I want to fight!" Takuya shouted, grinning. "Man, I haven't felt the power of being a Digimon in forever. It's so exhilarating!"

Koji snorted. "Big word, I'm surprised."

"I want to get it out of my system now, ya know? I wanna feel the fire on my fists!" Takuya continued on, as if Koji hadn't interrupted to insult him. He just grinned his cute trademarked lop-sided grin that Zoe couldn't help but smile at. It was one of his few good traits, what with his stubbornness and ignorance.

Koichi shrugged. "I don't mind either."

"You're the one with the giant burn on his back, are you sure you wouldn't rather rest while we travel than train?" Koji persuaded, looking at his brother with concern.

"No one said he had to be the one training," a voice piped up. Zoe and the others glanced over to see JP joining them. She moved over a bit to allow JP to stand beside her. "We can give the injured a chance to rest and train the newbies."

Koichi and Tommy nodded in agreement.

"And then travel tomorrow, yeah?" Takuya added with a glance at Zoe.

"Sounds good," Zoe said. "Does everyone agree?"

"Yeah," they all said in unison.

"Wait," Koichi stopped them. "Shouldn't we get the others opinions?"

"Oh," Takuya deadpanned.

 _'I forgot about them,'_ Zoe thought guiltily. She turned around with the rest of the group to stare at the other four. Yori had stopped talking to Kouta and was eyeing them warily, obviously listening in on their conversation. Kouta was now playing with all of the in-trainings, rolling around with them in the dirt. Aki and Rana remained silent and unmoved from their spots.

"Hey, guys, how do you feel about training today?" Takuya asked a bit sheepishly. At first they were all silent, with Kouta pausing in lifting up a DemiVeemon playfully and the others just staring.

"Uh, that sounds fine, but why do we need to train?" Kouta asked naively, putting the female DemiVeemon down on his chest since we was laying down on his back. A Koromon butted his head while a Viximon curled up under his armpit and a Kokomon climbed onto his stomach.

"You're kidding right?" Koji said, giving the boy an odd look.

"We were just attacked by an army of Digimon yesterday- Yesterday? Would it count as yesterday?" Takuya mumbled to himself. "We were taken at night, but it was day here..." He snapped out of his rambling, a fierce glow in his eyes. "Anyway, I'd rather have you guys ready for when we're attacked again."

"...We're being attacked because we're those 'Legendary Warriors', right?" Yori spoke up with a thoughtful but cautious gaze.

"Yeees?" Takuya answered, with a raise of his eyebrow. Yori did not respond. He simply shuffled, folded his arms and looked away with a light scowl on his features.

"Come on, you can't seriously believe this place isn't real," Zoe scolded. _'What's so hard to believe when you were literally attacked and felt the pain?'_ "I know it's weird, but you've been here for a day now." She tried a more comforting, soft tone in hopes to convince him.

Yori sighed, putting his hands down."I suppose, but a 'Legendary Warrior'? Seriously? That's... For some reason I find that harder to believe than the... 'mons."

"Why do they all have 'mon' at the end of their names?" Kouta pondered, poking the DemiVeemon's nose. He wore a smile, but Zoe saw the conflicting look in his eyes.

Yori tilted his head back, looking at the sky with a frown. "But... I guess I'll go along with it for now." He focused back on the group. "I'd rather get used to... being a Digimon than travel right now. Although, my opinion doesn't matter much does it, since you already have everything decided?" He gave them an accusatory glance, and they all awkwardly rubbed the back of their necks or coughed a sorry. His gaze softened and he gave them a light smile.

 _'I guess he's finally coming around,'_ Zoe thought with relief. Now they just needed to convince Aki to stay with the group before she pulled a Koji and left.

"What about you two?" JP inquired politely to the two girls.Zoe was a bit surprised he hadn't flirted with them yet, but she supposed he had grown out of that in the two years, and that there really wasn't a right time for it. Zoe almost felt a bit ticked, having to deal with his flirting last time in the Digital World, and then Aki and Rana get off scot free and didn't have to deal with it. At least JP had stopped mooning after her and had come to think of her like a sister.

Aki scowled at him, unsurprisingly, while Rana messed with her blue hair and looked downcast at the ground.

"I guess it's alright, b-but I d-don't think I-I'll be able to do much... I-I don't k-know how to fight," Rana mumbled, turning to mess with her beads in favor of her hair.

"That's the point," Takuya said. "We're training so you know _how_ to fight." Rana mumbled something inaudible and flinched, not daring to look up at them. Zoe let out a sigh.

"Don't you want to be able to fight?" Zoe persuaded. "You know, so you can defend and protect yourself and your friends?" Rana shrugged in response and Zoe had to contain another irritated sigh. It would be a bit helpful if Rana could respond with words, but Zoe also didn't want to pressure her into doing anything. She was probably scared and confused, after all, and her shy and timid personality wasn't helping much.

 _'I feel like in a twist of fate,_ she's _gonna be the one to run off,'_ Zoe thought humorously. With a glance at Koichi, she added, _'It always is the quiet ones.'_

"What kind of training? Fighting dummies or fighting each other?" Aki asked with a cold look in her eyes.

The six looked at each other.

"Well, we don't have any dummies," Tommy said. He messed with his hat, which he had grown into over the years.

"I don't think you should practice too much anyway," JP added.

Aki glowered at him. "Why not?"

JP gave her a look that just screamed 'Seriously?'. "You and Koichi both have major burns. We should let them heal."

Aki tilted her head up in a superior way. "And you have a cut on your own burn."

"I don't plan on moving around or practicing fighting. The reason I suggested training was so we could get some rest since we're injured," JP explained. "Beside, my burn isn't as bad as yours. The cut's healed already."

"Really? How?" Kouta piped up curiously.

"You heal faster in the Digital World," JP answered quickly before turning back to Aki who looked ready to argue.

"I'm 'spirit evolving' or whatever anyway. It's not like you can do much to physically stop me," Aki challenged with narrowed eyes, squaring up her shoulders and looking defiantly at him.

"Just let her do whatever. She'll end up running off if we don't," Zoe sighed for what seemed like the millionth time today. "I want to spirit evolve as well anyway."

"But Zoe, you're injured too-" Takuya started to protest.

"I've had worse than this," Zoe defended herself, glaring into Takuya's brown eyes. "It's nothing but a mere scratch."

"But-" Takuya whined, and Zoe felt the urge to slap him over his head. Hadn't she proven numerous times that she was stronger than a stereotypical girl?

"Don't argue with me, Kanbara," Zoe silenced. "I'm at least going to do one practice fight."

With some more arguing, the group decided on who was doing what. JP and Koichi would watch over the in-trainings while the others trained the newbies. Zoe and Takuya would be training them first, and then Tommy and Koji. Then came the trouble of finding a place to actually practice without the confinement of trees. Wandering through the forest and stopping multiple times due to the in-training Digimon's tendencies to wander, they finally came across a flat clearing with a boulder on one side and a small stream on the other. They situated JP, Koichi, and the rowdy and excited in-trainings down by the stream. Koji and Tommy hung out near them, but they were closer to the others.

"Alright, we all remember how to spirit evolve, right?" Takuya asked with a shiny grin. The others gave nods and Aki scowled at him.

"We aren't helpless, you know," Aki chided. With a side glance at Rana, she added, "At least I'm not."

Zoe felt herself prickle at that. "Don't be rude, or I'm going to kick you out from this training session."

Aki merely held herself higher. "I'll kick back."

"I will _forcefully_ kick you out of this training session," Zoe threatened right back. The two girls glared daggers at each other before Zoe humphed and flicked her hair. "Remember who's more experienced here."

Takuya ignored the two girl's spat and continued on. With a grin ever-present on his face, he said, "Let's get to it then! **Execute! Spirit Evolution!** "

With the exception of Rana, all the others followed suit, enveloping themselves in a cocoon of blue data. A man in red armor, a fairy, a caveman, a wood nymph and an elvish wizard in costume appeared in the places of Takuya, Zoe, Yori, Aki and Kouta respectively. Kazemon quickly took note of how Aki's Digimon Form- Nymphmon- had a badly burnt arm still and slightly blackened wing tips. Kazemon herself had a faint scar along her mid-waist.

"Are you gonna Evolve?" Agunimon asked Rana after he had let out a few small flames in a show-off-y way. Rana looked down to the ground as her favorite thing to look at was most definitely grass and not the faces of people.

"I-I guess..." Rana whispered timidly. Anxiously, she pulled out her D-Tector and flinched at the sight of it. After what felt like forever, she finally got the courage to raise her fractal code surrounded hand and slice down onto the blue D-Tector. After saying the typical words, she was Spirit Evolving. The cocoon shrunk in size before popping.

"Pessamon!" came the timid cry. Rana's voice had not been altered much, although it held a strange regal sound to it. Pessamon was a small child-like Digimon, about the height of Kumamon. She was clearly based off an otter, with small, blue furry otter ears, a long, blue otter tail and blue boots that went up to her knees and were shaped like otter paws. She wore thin dark silver armor with a blue-ish hue that covered her whole body, including her arms but not her legs, shoulders and neck. She had a silver head plate as well, similar to an Angewomon's in which it covered her eyes except without the wings, and a silver crown was merged with the head plate. The crown had the symbol for the Warrior of Water on it. Her skin was a dark ocean blue that faded to a lighter blue in certain places like her elbows and cheeks. In her hand she held a staff with rounded sphere edges and two thin holy rings attached to both ends, making four in total.

Kazemon blinked. The Warrior of Water had completely changed from the stuck-up, petty Ranamon Kazemon loathed to a tiny, timid yet elegant otter.

 _'Pessa…'_ Kazemon glanced at Pessamon's crown. _'Pessa as in 'principessa'? So, princess?'_

Leeremon bounced over to Pessamon's side, a smile on his bright red lips.

"I thought you were gonna be a shark, but an otter's cool too," he stated, cuffing one of her fuzzy ears. Pessamon flinched away from his touch. "You got smaller! Are Legendary Warriors supposed to get smaller?"

Tommy frowned from his place beside JP. "What's wrong with being small?" He mumbled and JP chuckled something to him that Kazemon didn't catch.

Agunimon lit his fists on fire. "Alright! Why don't we start now?"

"Hold on a minute," Kazemon told him. "Why don't we let them get used to their forms. Do you guys know all your moves? They should come instinctively, but it's better to be sure."

Koji nodded. "We could give you advice on how to use them."

"Nymphmon's move set is pretty useful," Koichi piped up from where he was playing with the in-trainings.

Everyone's attention turned to the wood nymph.

"Useful? What do you mean useful?" Agunimon inquired. Nymphmon shuffled awkwardly, flapping her slightly singed wings.

Seeing as she wouldn't respond, Koichi spoke up. "Well, she's got this move that paralyzes the enemy and another move that gives everyone a boost."

"So she's like a support character?" Tommy said, referring to RPG games.

"Huh, we've never had a form of support like that," Agunimon said in an interested tone.

Nymphmon looked off to the side, in what Kazemon assumed was nervousness. "I've also got Overgrowth."

"What does that move do?" Kazemon asked.

Nymphmon shrugged. "Makes all the plants come alive, I guess."

"That's good if we're attacked by multiple Digimon. It'll keep them occupied," JP said.

"Yeah, or if you need to retreat," Koji added. Nymphmon bristled at that, and Kazemon wouldn't put it past her if she was the 'never back down or run away from a fight' type.

"What moves do you have?" Kazemon asked Hantamon. The caveman Digimon shrugged.

"I know I have Jagar Kick," he said.

"That one's pretty self explanatory, it's just a really fast kick," Agunimon said, nodding. Kazemon wondered how he knew for a moment, before she recalled he had fought beside him in the castle fire.

"Okay, what else?" Kazemon further inquired.

Hantamon paused, thinking. "...Far-Away Clubbing."

"That one also seems pretty self explanatory," Leeremon commented. "Let me guess, you can club the opponent... But from far away?" Hantamon nodded, his stony, eyeless face making him seem humorless.

"So you're very evened out then. One attack for close up and one for far away," Koji said, nodding to himself in approval.

"I've got Silbernes Schwert! It summons two swords!" Leeremon chimed in. His tail wagged similar to a puppy's. "And I've got Dark Orb! That one summons two black orbs. I think they do different things." He tilted his head with a small smile, his golden bell on his wizard hat ringing gently. "I guess you guys were right about the instinctual knowing stuff. I know that one orb drains energy and the other deals damage, and I haven't even used that move before!"

"That could make for a good combo," Agunimon advised, getting excited. "You could be fighting with your Silbernes Schwert and pull a Dark Orb on them when you see a chance."

Leeremon gave a fanged smile, but something about the humanized blood-red eyes made it unsettling. Almost as if they were shimmering with so many emotions at once, that they couldn't express even one emotion to the world, and they were crying over it. ...Then again, maybe Kazemon was just over-thinking about the eyes? Eyes did not have their own personalities, after all. Her mind flashed to Duskmon. Or maybe they did?

"What are your moves?" Agunimon asked the smaller Pessamon. The Warrior of Water glanced at her staff.

"Um, I don't know..." Pessamon tensed. "A-Am I s-supposed to know?"

"No, it's alright," Agunimn quickly comforted her. "Just think. Imagine you were about to get attacked. What would you do?"

Pessamon gazed upwards, for the first time in forever. While she didn't have eyes, something about her expression and posture made Kazemon know that she either didn't know how to answer, or she didn't _want_ to answer.

Something crossed her facial expression, though, and she straightened up.

"Ocean Shards..." Pessamon whispered.

"What?" Agunimon asked, leaning forward to better hear her.

"Ocean Shards," Pessamon repeated. "A-An attack made of sharp shards o-of water t-that are thrown at the opponent in-n v-v-varying s-sizes."

They all blinked at her sudden explanation of the attack. How did she go from supposedly 'not knowing' to seemingly knowing the exact definition. Then again, Kazemon did know all of her forms attacks and what they did perfectly, it was just hard to put into words.

"Oh, well, good!" Agunimon grinned. "That's a decent attack to make your target back up, or for far ranged battles. Any other attacks?"

"I think... Flow of River?" Pessamon said shuffling. She seemed more uncertain of this attack. Her tail sagged nervously. "I think, I guess it... I-It changes the opponent's... uh, t-typing? E-Element? I-I d-don't know wh-what's c-called."

"That's new. Can you try it on me and we'll see what it does," Agunimon suggested. His fists lit back up again, red flames consuming them, and he got into a quick fighting stance. Hesitantly, Pessamon raised her staff, the rings jingling and clanking against it.

" **Flow of River!** " Pessamon called out softly. Her staff glew a rich shade of blue, and in turn, Agunimon did as well. It lasted just a second, and then there was silence as the waited for the attack to take affect. Kazemon began to think maybe the attack hadn't gone through, or that it couldn't effect Agunimon for some reason. Then, the fire on Agunimon's fists turned black and purple. Startled, Agunimon stared blankly at the black fire.

"Woah!" Kazemon fluttered beside him, gazing at the fire as well.

"What is that?" Leeremon questioned, hopping over to place a finger near the dark fire. To their surprise, it didn't burn him, but he did retreat his hand and looked at it in surprise. "Weird! It's cold?"

"It's darkness!" Koichi gasped, holding Viximon.

"What?" JP said.

"She said the attack changes the typing. And I can feel it. It's not the fire element anymore, it's the darkness element!" Koichi explained, and Viximon let out a noise to gain his attention. Koichi patted the Digimon and whispered something to him.

"That's so cool!" Agunimon said in awe, playing with the darkness fire.

"Hey, watch it!" Kazemon warned when Agunimon twirled the darkness fire too close to her. Agunimon grinned but he brought the darkness fire back down and let it dissipate.

"I've never really thought about type advantages before. This is feeling more like Pokemon now!" Agunimon chuckled. A look of terror suddenly crossed his face. "Wait. Am I- Is it gonna change back from darkness?"

"Hopefully. Warrior of Darkness is my thing," Koichi said humorously.

"It will," Pessamon stated confidently as she nodded to herself.

Koji raised a dubious eyebrow. "How are you so sure?"

"Wh-why wouldn-n't it?" She stuttered in response, her otter tail curling around her body.

Agunimon grinned again, tiny fangs gleaming. "Well, I better get used to this now in case we use your move later!" With a war cry, he charged at Hantamon, who stumbled back in surprise, lifting up his club to block Agunimon's flaming fists of darkness. Leeremon hopped away from the battling Warriors.

" **Pyro Punch!** " Agunimon called. Instead of launching a flaming dragon from his wrists, a dark dragon of shadows appeared and entangled itself around Hantamon. Hantamon struggled with the dragon, trying to pull it away from his neck. Agunimon wasted no time in sending a kick to Hantamon's side.

"Are we sure it's safe to fight? I mean, if he was using flames instead, would they not burn Hantamon, and in turn, Yori?" Nymphmon asked skeptically with narrowed hollowed eyes and a flick of her charred wings.

"Well, not exactly. The fire from before was fire that had been set down purposefully. Fire from a direct attack doesn't exactly burn without some serious firepower and malicious intent. We're not exactly sure why, but the Digital World is weird like that sometimes," Kazemon explained carefully, flying beside the nymph. "And since our Digimon bodies kind of act like armor, you'd have to hit someone very seriously or repeatedly until it'd bruise your human body, although a normal hit itself would hurt like heck."

"Hmm," Nymphmon hummed, watching the battle between Agunimon and Hantamon. Hantamon was severely disadvantaged and inexperienced, and it was obvious. He was just blocking with his arms or club and not even attacking, not that Agunimon seemed willing to give him a chance.

Kazemon focused back on Nymphmon and smirked. " **Hurricane Wave** **!** " Kazemon produced tornadoes at her finger tips, flinging them at an unsuspecting Nymphmon. The tornadoes slammed into her side and tossed her into the trees surrounding the clearing. With a gleeful giggle, Kazemon flew above the stunned wood nymph. Nymphmon rubbed her forehead and cursed, glaring at the purple fairy. Kazemon threw a " **Tempest Twist!** " at her abdomen, but luckily, Nymphmon was able to roll out of the way, resulting in Kazemon slamming down on her shoulder instead.

Nymphmon shrugged Kazemon off and managed to get onto her legs, taking up a defensive position. Kazemon threw a kick her way but she grabbed Kazemon's foot with her hand. The momentum from the kick made her waver and she lost her footing, tumbling to the ground and taking Kazemon with her. Kazemon attempted to right herself, but Nymphmon grabbed both of her arms.

" **Stun Pollen!** " Golden pollen rained down on the scene, and Kazemon felt her muscles begin to stiffen as she inhaled the pollen. She attempted to flap her wings rapidly, but it did nothing as they were quickly paused. Soon, Kazemon's whole body was paralyzed and she inwardly gasped.

 _'I should have expected that!'_ Of course, Nymphmon's attacks were mostly status effects, but she didn't seem like the type to play nurse on the sidelines. She'd surely find a way to make her moves offensive. In a one-on-one battle like this, Stun Pollen would be a deadly move as it immobolized her one opponent.

Fortunately for Kazemon, Nymphmon had to first push Kazemon's weight off her and then she preceded take out her bow and an arrow.

"Shoulda took archery practice..." Kazemon heard Nymphmon mumble to herself as she aimed the bow and arrow. Kazemon felt panic rise inside her as Nymphmon took her sweet time aiming the bow. She was nothing but target practice to her! She saw the pollen beginning to fade from the scene, but Kazemon didn't know if that meant she'd be free to move soon.

Nymphmon let go of the arrow and it hit square on Kazemon's shoulder. The arrow, to both of their surprise, exploded, and four vines latched themselves around Kazemon's shoulder. What was left of the arrow was just a little seed, and it embedded itself into Kazemon's skin. Kazemon tried to scream, but all that came out was a weird gurgling noise.

Nymphmon raised an eyebrow and expirementally picked at the vines. They wiggled and pulled under her touch and it made Kazemon feel sick to her stomach. Where the vines alive? In fact, it almost felt as though they were sucking something, like leeches... Where they draining her energy or data or something? She didn't feel anything yet.

Kazemon heard the buzzing of her wings before she noticed she was regaining control of her body slowly. Nymphmon backed up and put her bow away. Just as Kazemon snapped out of paralysis, Nymphmon cried out, " **Overgrowth!** " and the plants of the forest shot to life, grabbing Kazemon and pulling her down.

 _'What is it with her and immobilizing attacks?'_ Kazemon thought. The roots, acting much like slithering snakes, began to squeeze her and the thorns scrapped against her, threatening to draw blood... Or data. The flowers snapped at her, their large, sharp teeth gleaming. This was a nightmare.

"Aha!" Agunimon cried and both of the girls' attention was caught by him fiddling with his now red and orange flames. "It wore off!"

Kazemon used the distraction to yank away her leg from the roots and kick Nymphmon. She aimed for her stomach, but ended up hitting her arm due to the plants' interference.

With an odd combination of " **Hurricane Wave!** " and " **Tempest Twist!** ", Kazemon sliced the vines and plants into pieces with high, razor-like winds. Nymphmon stumbled back as well, trying to avoid the sharp winds. It was hard to avoid wind, though, as Nymphmon soon found out when she got smacked in the stomach by the winds and landed on the ground winded; no pun intended. Kazemon quickly jumped forward, landing a solid kick on Nymphmon's exposed stomach of twigs. Nymphmon let out a low screech before cutting it off by gritting her teeth. She attempted to weakly push Kazemon off but the fairy girl just smirked and crouched down, standing on Nymphmon's body.

"Guess this means I won?" Kazemon bragged light-heartedly. Nymphmon glared at Kazemon. She wanted to use her Overgrowth attack, but Kazemon had killed off most of the plants. Her Stun Pollen attack would bring back the battle, but it'd probably just end in her losing to Kazemon again. And it's not like her last and least favorite move would help much either. Admitting defeat, Nymphmon sighed irritatedly.

Kazemon's smug smirk widened, before she turned it into a friendly smile. She fluttered her transparent wings and flew off of the wood nymph. She offered a hand to the girl.

"Good fight, although there's room for improvement," Kazemon complimented. Nymphmon glared with hollow eyes at Kazemon's hand. She pulled herself up and flared her wings, taking flight and returning back to the clearing since the two female Warriors had taken the fight to the forest. Kazemon frowned and dropped her hand.

As Kazemon reapproached the clearing as well, she noticed that Agunimon and Hantamon's battle had long since ended. Agunimon was telling Hantamon to remember to use his moves and not just his club, and when he was using his moves to focus on what was happening around him and not just on completing the move. When the fire man noticed Kazemon returning, he gave her a flashy grin, before dedigivoling. He stretched his arms and signaled for Hantamon to do the same. Hantamon dedigivolved, as well as Kazemon and Nymphmon.

"Alright! Now it's time for Koji's and Tommy's battles!" Takuya cheered excitedly. He slapped Koji's shoulder and the two got into a small argument before Zoe quickly made them shut up. Tommy and the raven-haired boy Spirit Evolved into Kumamon and Lobomon respectively. Kumamon giggled and immediately approached Leeremon who looked as equally, if not more, excited to begin mock fighting. The youngest Warriors began to circle each other in more of a playful way, but it soon became more like a real battle when snowballs and dark orbs began to be thrown around.

Pessamon flattened her ears and looked at Lobomon tentatively. The armored wolf man looked emotionless due to his eyes being covered and the flat line of his mouth. She cocked her head to the side submissively and tucked her otter tail in-between her legs like a scared dog. Lobomon merely raised a wrist and fired a " **Howling Laser!** " her way. Pessamon yelped and dodged out of the way, rolling clumsily on the ground and holding her staff to her chest.

It quickly became clear that neither match up was good for each other.

The bear and the elf had similar styles of hopping and bouncing around, being light and nimble on their feet. But, it ended up making it hard for either to hit each other. They never approached one another because Kumamon had his blaster and Leeremon was content with his Dark Orbs and shields. In fact, it came as a surprise to all when one of the snowballs from Kumamon's Blizzard Blaster attack hit the mirror on Leeremon's stomach bounced back and hit Kumamon. It was a clear shot for Leeremon to go in with his Silbernes Schwert swords but he remained still, his inexperience and youth making it so he didn't realize it was an opening.

Pessamon was constantly dodging and running away from a persistent Lobomon. It was clear Lobomon was barely even trying though, as sometimes he wouldn't attack at all and Pessamon would still flinch and run away. Pessamon didn't even try to fight back. She didn't even use Flow of River. The otter wasn't even continually moving like Leeremon and Kumamon were. She would pause whenever Lobomon was, as if waiting for the attack. Like with Kumamon and Leeremon's battle, a surprise came though, when Lobomon had sneaked up on Pessamon after distracting her with a Howling Laser. He attempted to reach out and punch her in the face when Pessamon whirled around, and with no hesitance, called out:

" **Cry of the Water Princess!** " The voice that came from the otter Digimon's mouth was all regal and confidence, with no wavering or shyness like Rana's tone of voice.

Her staff was encased in water that came from nowhere and she slammed it into Lobomon's face. The wolf let out a yelp and was sent stumbling backwards. He grunted as he rubbed his definitely bruised cheek. There had been a lot of unexpected power from that hit.

"When did you get that move?" Leeremon asked curiously. He and Kumamon had paused in their ring-around-the-rosy fight when Pessamon had called out the new move. If one could see Pessamon's eyes, they would see her blink before she snapped out of whatever had just happened. She curled in on herself and pulled her staff close to her.

"O-oh my gosh! I'm s-so sorry! I just- I didn't! I don't know!" She wailed.

"Well," Takuya said slowly. "It's clear your guys's match ups aren't perfect. Mind switching opponents?"

Lobomon grunted in response. "I don't." He pulled himself up.

"S-sorry..." Pessamon mumbled, looking down at the ground.

"Sure, Taky!" Kumamon chirped, bouncing over to Pessamon. Leeremon grinned at Lobomon as he approached. These match-ups proved to be a little better. Leeremon was swift to dodge and twirl around Lobomon as the wolf man made his attacks. Kumamon was gently coaxing Pessamon to try attacking, and managed to get her to use Ocean Shards once.

Zoe relaxed beside JP, petting a half-asleep Kokomon and watching the practice fights. It was amusing how quickly Lobomon got irritated got with Leeremon as the elvish Digimon laughed and giggled, dancing away from Lobomon's attacks, while also somehow standing right beside him. Close distance dodging sure wasn't easy, but Leeremon seemed to be a master at it. But, once a Howling Laser managed to hit him, Leeremon had been knocked down and groaned on the floor.

Zoe couldn't help but softly laugh at how proud and relieved Lobomon seemed to be now that he had knocked away what Zoe was sure he was thinking of as "an annoying fly". Takuya chuckled as well before his smile suddenly fell and his head whipped around to look behind them at the sky. Zoe, along with JP and Yori, were quick to glance at what he was looking at. Their eyes widened. Off in the distance was smoke, and soon sparks of fire danced in the sky. A large orange dragon flared his wings and roared, breathing fire onto the trees.

"Soladramon," Koichi gasped. Aki scowled at the dragon in the distance from beside the Warrior of Darkness.

"Who?" Yori asked confused.

Koichi turned to look at them with a grim look, Viximon whining in his grasp. "The one who set the palace on fire."

* * *

 **This chapter got a little longer that it needed to be! Originally, it went on a lot longer, and I planned on having a scene where Loweemon fake attacks Leeremon and Pessamon jumps forward to protect him but stops last second and Loweemon is like "lmao why did you stop?" but unfortunately, I remembered that Koichi is smart and would probably agree to rest his burn wounds ;( But I got in a scene with Lobomon and Pessamon where it seems Pessamon perhaps loses control of herself? Hmm, is that possible? Idk how clear I made that. The thing that I'm gonna have with Rana and the Water Spirits has changed from what it was two years ago, but this revamped version was inspired by the thought of "in the Human World, would the Warriors loose control of their Human Spirits like they do with the Beast Spirits in the Digital World?" And yes, I know, this isn't the Human World, but! I've got an idea ;) what if... a Warrior willing let go of their control?**

 **Please leave a review, thank you!**


	5. 5: Ice in the Fire

_**Chapter Five: Ice in the Fire**_

The flames cackled, rising high, and the orange-scaled dragon flapped his wings, sending the flames to scorch the trees. Tiny specs of flames flew in the sky, and JP realized they were DemiMeramon. The fire had started off in the distance, but the dragon, Soladramon, Koichi had called him, and the DemiMeramon were rapidly spreading the flames. It was clear they planned to demolish the whole forest, burn it to the ground, just like they had the castle.

Bukamon gasped in JP's ear, since he was riding on his shoulder. "He's really big!"

"Fire!" Viximon squealed from Koichi's grasp. He was trembling with teary eyes, and pawing at Koichi's chest. "More fire!" He wailed.

"No, no! Bad fire, bad fire, bad fire!" The male DemiVeemon sang as he scrabbled over to Yori, clinging onto the boy's leg. The in-trainings cried with fear, traumatized by the fire.

"What are you gonna do?" Koromon asked in a polite, quiet voice, her eyes shining with hope and trust as she looked up at Takuya. The Warrior of Fire put on a stern, but determined, look. He picked up the pink ball with floppy ears and held her closely.

"First, we're gonna get you guys to safety, then we're gonna fight," Takuya answered, glaring at the searing fire.

"But what are we gonna fight?" The elvish Warrior of Steel, Leeremon, asked as he glanced around the clearing. "They'll just light everything on fire."

"He has a point, Taky," JP added. "They'll just burn the forest down, and us too."

Takuya scrunched his nose up and glared at Soladramon as the dragon leisurely crushed trees below his talons and surged forward slowly.

"What about the Digimon in the forest?" Kumamon asked, his launcher, known as 'Romeo', held limply in his hand.

"They can get out by themselves," the female DemiVeemon piped up. "They've lived in this forest their whole lives. They've experienced floods and thunderstorms, and probably wildfires started by other fire Digimon as well." She quirked her lips though. "Although, anyone with young might have some struggles. Brother, do you know where the dens and huts are in the forest?"

"Yessie, yessie, yes I do!" The other DemiVeemon chattered from where he had clambered onto Yori's head. "Most of the huts are down that-a-way, that-a-way, that-a-way!" He pointed South. "And the dens are scattered everywhere, yeah! Scattered!"

"Then some of us should split up," Lobomon suggested. "We," he gestured to the ones already Spirit Evolved, "can go head down to the huts while you guys get the in-trainings out of the forest."

"Sounds like a good plan to me," Leeremon nodded and so did Kumamon, but Pessamon flinched beside him. Her posture was stiff and she looked something like a mix between a startled cat and a scolded dog.

"I'll go with you so it's half and half," Takuya added, Spirit Evolving before anyone could stop him.

"Rana, would you rather stay with us and help the in-trainings?" JP asked politely, seeing her scared stature.

"Yea! Your water could be used to stop fires from getting to them," Zoe added sweetly. Technically, she could also help put out fires for the ones going down to the huts, but JP knew what Zoe was going for. "I'll take your place. Here, hold Kokomon for me." Zoe handed Pessamon the chocolate brown blob with three horns and tiny floppy ears. Pessamon timidly took the in-training Digimon. She didn't say anything, but it was clear she was staying with the in-training group. Zoe quickly Beast Spirit Evolved into Zephyrmon, a beautiful bird-like woman Digimon with light-blue wings growing out of her head, a pair of brown wings on her back and a pink breathing mask over her mouth.

The Legendary Warriors exchanged quick words before splitting up. Lobomon, Leeremon, Kumamon, Agunimon and Zephyrmon swiftly took off to the South, leaving JP, Koichi, Aki, Yori and Pessamon with the in-trainings. Aki, reluctantly, picked up the female DemiVeemon while Yori took the Koromon and held her in his hands while the male DemiVeemon rested on his pale blond haired head.

Koichi cast JP a slightly exasperated look with a quirked eyebrow, and JP immediately recognized it. Back in the Human World, the two hung out frequently when JP wasn't at school or helping his family and Koichi wasn't with his mother or twin. JP wouldn't consider him and Koichi super best buddies, but out of the group, JP thought of him and Tommy as his closest friends. They would always chat quietly about random things, somethimes meaningful, deep things, and sometimes just about the weather. They both liked their silence, and they both liked artistic and theater stuff as well, with Koichi being more of an artist and actor and JP being a magician and entertainer. They would sometimes talk about their more negative feelings. Ones about Koichi's past, and ones about JP's feelings and fears of... being forgotten.

Koichi's glance was conveying the information of 'Look who we're stuck with'. It wasn't supposed to be a mean or snobby comment, just a slightly humorous, and slightly worried joke. And JP agreed with him. Pessamon lacked a lot of self-confidence, barely knew how to fight and she had ran away last time. Aki was clearly disagreeable and harsh and would probably be a pain this whole time. Yori was alright, but he was no master at fighting and didn't have that instinctual flow that Leeremon did. And, of course, the in-training Digimon might be a problem if they decided to do something reckless.

"Let's get moving," JP said, taking charge. Koichi sent him a small, encouraging smile. "Anyone got any ideas on which way is the quickest out of the forest?"

They all shook their heads, of course, but the female DemiVeemon in Aki's arms spoke up.

"Brother, pay attention and stop annoying Koromon," she scolded. The male DemiVeemon stopped poking Koromon to look at his sister.

"Huh, huh, huh?"

"They want to know which way is quickest out of the forest."

The DemiVeemon brightened. "Oh, oh, oh! I know, I know! The direction of the castle, of course, sillies! We aren't that far into the forest, nope, nope, nope!"

"North," his sister confirmed with a nod.

"How do you know so much about the forest?" Aki asked with suspicion, narrowing her eyes at the brother. "I thought you lived in the castle?"

 _'Is she really suspicious of him? An_ in-training _, for Lady Ophanimon's sake?'_ JP thought.

"I'm gonna be an explorer when I grow up! An explorer, explorer, explorer!" DemiVeemon chirped happily.

The female DemiVeemon sighed with a smile. "He escaped the castle every day just to go exploring in the forest. The guards always had to come find him. Sethmon was always so angry."

"Who's Sethmon?" Pessamon asked timidly but curiously.

"Guys, not to interrupt, but this isn't really the time for a conversation like this," Yori reminded them, pointing to the expanding fire with his thumb.

"Right," JP agreed, along with everyone else. "Let's go." He walked North, the others following his lead. Koichi was a step behind him and Pessamon took up the rear awkwardly as the only Spirit Evolved one.

JP couldn't stop his neck hairs from rising as he heard the cackling of the flames in the distance. They were so ominous. They almost sounded like... Laughter, the giggling of small maniacs. Weren't there DemiMeramon among the flames? That could explain it. JP couldn't decide if that was more unsettling or not.

JP spared a look back at the forest fire and was alarmed to find it had gotten _way_ farther, nearly to the clearing. Soladramon had turned, and was heading South.

 _'Oh no, Taky and the others!'_ JP worried. But it's not like he could do much. He couldn't alert them, they were too far away, obviously. Besides, the goal he had currently was to get the in-trainings to safety. If he couldn't do that, then he was a terrible leader, right?

Being a leader was something younger JP had always wanted to do, or felt like he had to do. He had grown up lazy and pampered by his parents, but there was also a strictness in his family that wanted him to be great and superior. So, he had been determined to prove himself. Looking back on it, JP had gone about it all wrong and he was embarrassed by his stupidity. Now, JP respected his place in his group of friends and accepted Takuya and Koji as the leaders. But, still... He often felt forgotten by his friends. Takuya and Koji were best friends, although they argued constantly. Takuya and Tommy were brothers for each other, and Zoe even acted like Tommy's older sister in many situations. Koichi was supported by them all, Koji especially. And JP? Where did he fall in the spectrum? He hung out with them whenever they needed an extra buddy. At least Koichi had made it a habit of talking to him even when he could be doing other things. And in terms of the Warrior group? Takuya was the leader, Koji was the co-leader, Zoe was (or used to be) the only girl, Koichi was that typical evil-turned-good like from those TV shows, and Tommy was the youngest, the child (or used to be, Kouta might be younger). Sure, JP was the oldest, but... Was that it?

JP shook off those thoughts. Now wasn't the time for that.

JP jerked to a stop as he brushed past a bush. Koichi bumped into him before stumbling back. The others paused in confusion, the chirping of the in-training coming to a stop.

"Wha-?" Yori began before stopping as his eyes caught sight of the large white ferret lounging on a chunk of ice. The ferret's head perked up, paper-like ears erecting. He stared at them with black eyes staring at them blankly. JP tensed. It was the ferret with the gray-clawed golden gloves, the one from the battle at the castle that had just sat back and done nothing. JP's eyes immediately looked on the faint gray Warrior of Ice symbol on his shoulder. Other faint gray lines scratched themselves under his eyes.

"...Oh," the ferret said after a long, drawn-out silence. "Woops." He coughed. He etched his claws into the ice, lifting himself up. "Well. Then."

"What are you doing here?" Aki demanded, her voice dripping venom. The female DemiVeemon in her grasp narrowed her eyes at the ferret as well, a stark contrast to the innocent, curious looks on the other in-trainings.

The ferret shrugged. "Well. _Well._ I _was_ supposed to be creating an ice wall, ya know, to trap you in the forest while Grumbles takes the other side with walls of earth. But... It's ice... and... that's fire... I don't know what they expected me to do."

 _'Grumbles?'_ JP raised an eyebrow. _'Since when did evil guys do nicknames?'_

"Sent to trap us?" Pessamon squeaked under her breath, although she was loud enough to hear. Kokomon squirmed in the otter woman's grasp.

"Yep," the ferret confirmed, popping the 'p'. There was another silence as the five human children study the ferret. He didn't seem stressed at all, and very unconcerned with the fact that his supposed enemies where right in front of him.

"Are you... Are you the enemy?" Aki hesitantly asked, glowering at the ferret with puzzlement speckled in her green gaze.

"Sure," the Warrior of Ice copycat (copyferret?) answered nonchalantly.

"Do we have to fight you?" Yori inquired, the DemiVeemon on his head echoing a "Yeah, do we?".

"No," he replied without hesitance, casually leaning back on a tree and sliding lightly on his ice chunk.

"So you're just... But... What?" JP stammered confusedly. If he was the enemy, why did they not have to fight him? ...Unless it was a trap of some sort?

The ferret raised an eyebrow at him. Humor twinkled in his eyes.

"Why don't _you_ want _us_ to attack you?" Koichi asked with surprisingly firmness. Viximon reflected his stony expression, trying to act sophisticated.

"'Cause there's five of you, one of me," the ferret replied calmly. "I'm more of a numbers ferret."

"So you're cowardly?" Aki accused.

"No, just smart," the ferret snorted. "I don't have a death wish, you know."

"You didn't do your job. Won't your 'Master' be angry with you?" Koichi persuaded, narrowing his eyes as he studied the ice ferret.

The ferret cocked his head. "Depends. Does my Master know?"

"Aren't you worried?" Bukamon piped up, drifting forward. JP reached out for the gray seal to pull him back but he slipped away. "What if he does know?"

"I don't see any cameras," the ferret answered simply.

"Don't those 'Masters' from animes always somehow know? They're always 'all-seeing', 'all-powerful'," Yori added.

"Does this look like an anime?" The ferret guffawed.

"It's the Digital World! Anything is possible!" Bukamon said cheerily, floating in front of the ferret. The ferret actually smiled at the in-training Digimon. Suddenly, his posture tensed, and his black eyes darted to look to the right of him. His golden metal glove raced forward, smacking the Bukamon to the ground.

"Hey!" JP cried, along with the others. He ran forward, picking up Bukamon who coughed out dirt. The ferret lurched forward, jumping on JP and snaring his fangs around his shoulder. JP kicked out at the ferret and grabbed his D-Tector, struggling to bring his hand with the fractal code close to it. The ferret's grip seemed to loosen, and JP managed to swipe his fractal code into the D-Tector.

" **Execute! Spirit Evolution!** " The others mimicked his cry, with Koichi doing a Beast Spirit Evolution. Beetlemon, JagerLoweemon, Nymphmon, and Hantamon where quickly on the scene. Nymphmon dropped DemiVeemon who called the other in-trainings to her and Pessamon. Viximon bounced off JagerLoweemon's back, running over to Pessamon, before being startled as the ferret stared at him with emotionless black eyes. The ferret made no move to attack, he just lay waiting as the in-trainings flocked together. JagerLoweemon turned to Viximon, grabbing him by the scruff and gingerly tossing him over to the DemiVeemon siblings who caught him with an 'omph!'.

The ferret glanced at all of them and then out into the forest. He took a step back before turning around and making a break for it. Beetlemon and JagerLoweemon were quick to chase after him. Nymphmon flew above the forest and followed from above while Hantamon and Pessamon tried to follow Beetlemon and JagerLoweemon. Pessamon was trying to hold all of the in-trainings to no avail.

"Hantamon! Help Pessamon with the in-trainings! We'll deal with him," Beetlemon commanded. Hantamon nodded and stopped running to help Pessamon.

The ferret slinked between the trees, slyly trying to get them off his tail. He suddenly burst forward with a surprising amount of speed. The world got brighter as the shade from the trees lifted, and Beetlemon realized the ferret had lead them out of the forest. Was it because the ferret didn't want them caught in the fire (or himself), or because he wanted more open space for a fight?

Beetlemon quickly got his answer as the ferret whipped around, wasting no time to let out an attack. " **Crystal Kristall, Ice Eis!** "

The ferret breathed out little snowflakes that floated to the ground. The moment the snowflakes touched the ground, spikes of ice busted out and lurched forward, creating an icy wall of spiky deathness. Beetlemon jumped out of the way, clumsily landing beside JagerLoweemon who used his Beast Spirit's speed to dodge around the icicles.

"Woah!" Beetlemon breathed. An arrow suddenly whizzed past him, aiming straight for the fake Warrior of Ice. The snow white-furred ferret narrowed his eyes and waited as the arrow flew towards him. Moments before it hit him, he tilted his head up and breathed out frost, freezing the arrow so it harmlessly bounced off his neck fur.

Beetlemon heard Nymphmon curse herself from up above.

The ferret turned his head. "Nice of you to show up."

"Shut you mouth, ferret-face. You no do your job," an ugly voice sneered as the mole known as Grumblemon approached from the forest that was steadily being consumed by fire.

"Neither did you, Grumblemon," the ferret laughed dryly. "You're supposed to be down West."

Grumblemon narrowed his eyes at his fellow corrupted Warrior.

"So, I'm guessing he's Grumbles?" Nymphmon stated with narrowed hollow eyes. For a moment, Beetlemon thought that should of been obvious, before he remembered Nymphmon wasn't one of the originally chosen, nor was she in the battle against Grumblemon's army, so she wouldn't know.

"Two versus three hardly seem fair to me," Grumblemon said, ignoring the ferret and Nymphmon. "Why we don't even the odds?"

A flaming dinosaur with a metal mask for a head growled at them as his body flickered and flamed, burning the trees as he emerged from the forest. Beetlemon recognized it as the Flarerizamon who had burned his side. At least the burn wound had healed. JagerLoweemon growled lowly, and Beetlemon could feel his body rumble beside him. He must have had a run-in with the flame lizard too.

Flarerizamon roared and charged forward, while Grumblemon raised his hammer and threw himself at them. JagerLoweemon leaped forward and slammed Flarerizamon down with a paw and grabbed Grumblemon's hammer with his mouth. Grumblemon yanked his hammer from JagerLoweemon and slammed it into the lion's side sending him stumbling away.

" **Lightning Blitz!** " Beetlemon called, sending a beam of electricity from his horn and into Flarerizamon and Grumblemon's side. The two howled in pain before Grumblemon angrily turned to face Beetlemon. Nymphmon swooped in, though, and called out " **Stun Pollen!** ". Golden specks glittered the area. JagerLoweemon took a step back and as a precaution so Beetlemon did as well. The attack didn't go as planned, as Grumblemon dug under ground to avoid it, the ferret let out a puff of frozen breath to stop the attack from hitting him, and the Flarerizamon just tilted his head as the pollen was burned by his fire and landed on his metal head.

Flarerizamon roared. " **Raging Inferno!** " Rings of fire sprung around them and Nymphmon flew away to avoid the fire. Flarerizamon locked onto the Warrior of Wood and lurched forward, swinging a claw at the leaf-winged wood nymph. Flarerizamon and Nymphmon engaged in a battle of fire and roots, with Flarerizamon's burst of flames and Nymphmon sacrificing plants to the attack to stop it from hitting her. JagerLoweemon jumped forward to help her, but the ground around him crumbled, and he stumbled, trying to regain his footing.

" **Jack in the Box!** " Grumblemon brought his hammer into JagerLoweemon's side and pushed him away from the battle between the fire lizard and the Warrior of Wood. Beetlemon made a move to help one of them, but he felt the air around him cool, and there was a rumbling in the ground. Beetlemon whipped around just in time to see spikes of ice rise from the ground. He dodged out of the way, but the wall of ice was too fast and enclosed around his foot. Beetlemon tripped, and slammed into the ground with a grunt. He pulled himself into a sitting position with one leg stuck out due to the foot attached being stuck in freezing ice. Beetlemon tried using sparks of electricity to weaken the ice, and, even though some cracks formed, the ice was too tough.

Claws clicked on the ice and Beetlemon turned his head to see the ferret climbing on the ice wall, curling around one of the icicles. He tilted his head in a curious manner at Beetlemon. Beetlemon was confused for a moment before he realized the ferret was studying the symbol on the armor on his knee plates.

"Warrior of Thunder, huh?" The ferret mused.

Beetlemon raised an eyebrow. "You didn't know?"

"Never went to school," the ferret shrugged. "That was more of my sister's thing. She liked history." The ferret's gaze hardened and Beetlemon watched with amazement as his body froze, coated in ice. His eyes glowed a light sky blue before the ice around him shattered to the ground.

" **Refresh and Refreeze!** " He growled. He snarled, baring his teeth. " **Frozen Fangs!** " His fangs elongated, becoming icicles in his mouth. He rushed forward and snapped his jaws around Beetlemon's leg. He roughly wrenched his leg out of the ice, earning him a pained scream from the Warrior of Thunder. The ferret lifted his head up and swung the armored beetle man into the ice wall. The ice wall shattered from his weight and the shards of ice snagged in-between his armor uncomfortably. The ferret leaped at Beetlemon and stabbed his fangs into his shoulder, again. Beetlemon groaned but latched onto the ferret's fang, using sheer power to twist the fang of ice and snap it off. The ferret yelped, hopping away and snarling. He watched as Beetlemon got up, cringing as the tiny ice shards tickled him with coldness and awkwardly poked him. The ferret's eyes glowed light blue for a moment again and his other fang melted away.

" **Thunder Fist!** " Beetlemon slammed his fists together as they sparked, and slammed them down on the ferret who curved his body so the attack missed him. He slunk forward, brushing against Beetlemon's body, and slipped over the ice wall to the other side. Beetlemon followed him, but the moment he touched ground, the ferret's metal gloved paw hit him in the side of his head and he was knocked to the ground. Ice surrounded him again and he swiftly produced a bunch of electricity that cackled and tore at the ice, shattering it so it rained down around him instead of slamming into him as a huge chunk. He rolled over and got to his feet, looking around for his opponent.

He took the time to register the other's battles as well, in case they needed any help. JagerLoweemon had gotten a moment away from Grumblemon and had snapped his jaws onto Flarerizamon, pushing the Digimon to the ground. Nymphmon yelled at him and JagerLoweemon growled something to her. She scowled and looked ready to fight _him,_ but JagerLoweemon hopped away, dodging a few unburned roots from Nymphmon's Overgrowth attack, with Flarerizamon struggling in his jaws. An irked Nymphmon turned to face Grumblemon as the mole charged at her.

Beetlemon focused as he saw the white ferret laying against a pillar of ice. The ferret was staring out at the forest with strained ears. The forest was almost completely burned down.

 _'I hope the others are doing okay.'_ Beetlemon prepared his Lightning Blitz attack, waiting for the ferret to make a move. The ferret snapped back into reality at the sound of buzzing electricity and turned to face Beetlemon. Beetlemon launched the lightning attack at the ferret, who evaded it swiftly. The attack slammed into the ice pillar, which came rushing down to meet him. Beetlemon's eyes widened.

* * *

Zephyrmon grunted as she swooped under a blast of fire. She held a brown-furred Gabumon and two Tsunomon tightly in her grasp, not wanting to drop them. She flew swiftly and gracefully around the plumes of fire, scanning the burning huts below. Soladramon, the large orange-scaled dragon, had headed their way, burning everything in sight. At first, the Legendary Warriors had believed the Warrior of Fire copycat was after them. but he seemed to just be a mindless beast set on destruction. He only swatted the Warriors away like pesky flies, but the Warriors had learned that he wouldn't take being pushed around standing down. Or, at least, Agunimon had when he felt insulted that the dragon ever thought he could copy his "greatness". He tried to attack Soladramon head on and had gotten knocked out because of it. He had regained consciousness just a few minutes ago and was under the care of Kumamon.

Zephyrmon dodged Soladramon's tail as he swung around to crush a hut. Zephyrmon wished they could stop his rampage, but they needed to get the families out. Zephyrmon dived down and over to Lobomon. The wolf man was holding onto a Salamon, Gummymon and Wanyamon. A Gaomon hung onto his shoulder desperately.

"See any more?" Zephyrmon asked as she spread her wings to come to a stop and land.

"No," Lobomon grunted.

"My babies!" The Gaomon whined, fretting over his three children.

"Gaomon, they will be fine," Gabumon shushed him. She sighed and shook her head at the frantic father.

Leeremon hopped down beside them. A Kudamon was curled around his neck, its wispy tail tickling the elf's chin.

"There's nothing in any of the huts, but the fire's getting hotter," Leeremon broke off with a cough.

"We should get out of here before we die of smoke inhalation," Lobomon suggested.

"Right," they all agreed.

* * *

In hindsight, they probably should have sent someone who knew more about the Digital World or had some experience in escaping drastic situations such as forest fires. Two inexperienced teens in charge of toddlers and young children who knew more than them wandering with flames barely searing their backs was not going to end well.

Well, they weren't really teens right now, were they? They were monsters. Digital monsters. Whatever. He didn't know how to feel about this.

"H-Hantamon? ...Yori? Um, w-what am I s-supposed to call you?" Rana, or Pessamon as she currently was, asked quietly, her breathing raspy from the smoke.

"Yori is fine," 'Hantamon' answered. He wasn't sure how to feel being a 'Legendary Warrior'. Being a 'Digimon'. He'd rather be home and wished he'd never known about this 'other world'. ...Wouldn't he? Would he want to be naive?

 _'I'd be with Kaito and Touma right now, instead of here, burning in a fire,'_ Hantamon mused darkly. _'But what if Kaito and Touma were attacked by these monsters? Father, and mother?'_ But they would never be attacked by these digital monsters. They were here, in this world, in a world made of data (apparently. How could he be here in flesh if it was data?). They would never be attacked. If his family wasn't here- Oh. Wait. _'Aki. I forgot.'_ His cousin. Right.

"Y-Yori, um..." Pessamon tried again, shuffling awkwardly as she held the DemiVeemon twins in her arms and balanced Kokomon on her crowned head.

"Yes?" Hantamon responded politely. He felt a sense of protectiveness for her, because of her timid demeanor. Hantamon, or Yori rather, was always told how he was supposed to take care of his younger brothers, and he took that very seriously, practically becoming their third parent. In the Digital World, he was filling the void of taking care of his brothers by worrying over and watching the others. He kept his eyes on Aki, as his cousin, although she was clearly ticked about it, Kouta and Tommy, as the youngest ones, and Rana, as the shyest. The others... He wasn't so sure about yet. Koji was sending him some bad vibes.

"D-DemiV-Veemon s-says that he recogniz-zed that rock with the scratches," she coughed before continuing. "He says th-that there's a-a-a... Um... There's l-less forest, uh... uh, um..."

"North. So to our right," the sister of the DemiVeemon answered.

Hantamon grunted in response, readjusting Viximon, Koromon and Bukamon in his grasp. "Alright. Let's go. Be careful."

* * *

The ice pillar slammed down onto Beetlemon, who tried to catch it with his hands, but was pushed down by the weight. His legs gave out beneath him at an awkward, painful angle. Beetlemon struggled to keep the pillar from crushing himself. He heard something thump down beside him and glanced to his side to see the ferret indifferently standing beside him, not even attacking or snidely taunting him. Beetlemon felt a little irritated. The ferret seemed like he had some good guy traits running in him, so it felt oddly rude of him to just let Beetlemon be crushed. Still, he was the enemy.

"Th- **Thunder Fist!** " Beetlemon huffed, electricity buzzing around his hands. He maneuvered one hand under the middle of the pillar so it could take all of the weight while he raised his other fist and slammed into the side of the pillar. It vibrated and cracked and Beetlemon repeated this until the pillar snapped and shattered into chunks, which were easier to move. Beetlemon pushed the chunks off of him and stood up. He wobbled on his aching legs, pain coursing through them, but he managed to stand his ground.

"Just so you know, that wasn't planned," the ferret's voice came from behind him, and he whipped around to see the ferret resting on the broken ice pillar. Beetlemon wasted no time in sending a bolt of electricity flying at the ferret, who leaped out of the way, the electricity just barely nipping his tail.

The ferret landed on all fours and he tilted his head back to stare at the Warrior of Thunder. "Catch me if you can." He bolted, becoming a streak of white and gold. Beetlemon immediately took after him, trying to stop him with zaps of electricity. But the ferret dodged them with ease, twisting and twirling like a ballerina. The ferret took a sharp turn, and Beetlemon almost ran into the wall of flames the fire in the forest had created.

The ferret ran him in circles, often stopping and waiting for Beetlemon to catch up before dashing away.

"You know, my title was the Ferret of the Frost," the ferret said as he calmly walked away from Beetlemon who was catching his breath. "But I think Warrior of Ice reject fits me better." The ferret flashed a fanged smile.

" **Crystal Kristall, Ice Eis!** " He called, shooting out snowflakes. Beetlemon leaped out of the way swiftly. Spikes jutted from the ground. The ferret cut Beetlemon off as he tried to move farther away from the ice wall. Beetlemon sent another bolt at him, hoping to finally get a hit on the fast-moving 'Ferret of the Frost'.

"FrigidKudamon isn't even my birth name, ya know?" The ferret continued, slinking away from the attack.

"Is FrigidKudamon your name?" Beetlemon asked warily. _'Birth name? Do Digimon even have birth names?'_

"Yes, currently," FrigidKudamon answered. "Started off as a little Kudamon." FrigidKudamon suddenly snapped forward. " **Frozen Fangs!** " He dragged his icy fangs across Beetlemon's armor, who kicked him away. FrigidKudamon hissed and slunk along the ice wall, taking off. Beetlemon was resigned to follow him. The two began the chase again, electricity flying.

FrigidKudamon zig-zagged before steering left and making a u-turn. He ran at Beetlemon directly, before veering to the right last second, just as Beetlemon brought down his fist. Beetlemon grunted and resumed chase. FrigidKudamon hopped down beside Grumblemon, who was startled by the appearance of his supposed ally. Beetlemon jerked to a stop just as one of Nymphmon's arrows zoomed past him.

FrigidKudamon breathed ice on the arrow before turning to his comrade and whispering something to which Grumblemon loudly disagreed.

"Watch where you're going," Nymphmon hissed as she flew down beside Beetlemon. Her eyes narrowed at the false Warrior of Ice. "Great. Now's he just gonna freeze all my arrows. Look what you've done."

"What _I've_ done?!" Beetlemon argued back, vexed that she'd blame him. "I didn't do anything! FrigidKudamon is the one who lead me here! He came here on his own."

The wood nymph glared at Beetlemon. "What is it with you Warriors and insisting on interrupting my battles?"

"Wha-?" Beetlemon didn't get to finish as Nymphmon raised her bow and fired another arrow at Grumblemon.

"Stay out of it." Nymphmon flew forward, commanding the one flower left on the battle field to attack Grumblemon with its overgrown fangs.

FrigidKudamon slinked away from Grumblemon after freezing the second arrow. He approached Beetlemon swiftly and dipped behind him. Beetlemon twirled around, trying to hit the quick ferret. FrigidKudamon circled around him before making a break for it at Nymphmon.

"Nymphmon! Look out!" Beetlemon called out in warning. Nymphmon twirled around, aiming her bow blindly at FrigidKudamon. Then, Grumblemon popped out of the ground and slammed his hammer into Nymphmon's side. She cried out and fell to the ground. She managed to get out a " **Stun Pollen!** " which forced FrigidKudamon and Grumblemon to retreat away from her. Beetlemon raced forward, sending another bolt of electricity at FrigidKudamon. He was tentative around the Stun Pollen before approaching the Warrior of Wood.

"You alright?" Beetlemon asked.

Nymphmon grunted and brushed her dark green hair away from her face. "No thanks to you."

Beetlemon couldn't believe her. Was she really blaming him? "But I warned you-"

"Not like that did much help," she shot back.

"How was I supposed to know?" Beetlemon yelled angrily.

"FrigidKudamon was _your_ opponent, you should have taken care of him."

"Oh, and you did _such_ a good job of handling Grumblemon!"

"Guys, stop fighting," a voice growled. The two turned to face JagerLoweemon. The dark lion sighed at them. Beetlemon glanced around for Flarerizamon, in case all three enemies were going to attack at once, but he couldn't spot the flame lizard. He guessed JagerLoweemon had been able to beat and scan him already.

Nymphmon glared while Beetlemon nodded to his friend. JagerLoweemon turned around and fired an " **Ebony Blast!** " at FrigidKudamon, who was circling the three Legendary Warriors. The Ferret of the Frost hopped out of the way with ease.

"Sure, just take all of my opponents, why don't you," Nymphmon muttered under her breath. JagerLoweemon twitched an ear but didn't comment.

Grumblemon burst from the ground a bit away from them, and called out, " **Slide Evolution!** ". He transformed into Gigasmon.

" **Tectonic Slam!** " He announced, leaping into the air and then slamming his fists down on the ground, creating tremors in the ground. Nymphmon faltered before taking to the skies while JagerLoweemon dug his claws into the ground to steady himself. Beetlemon stumbled and fell against JagerLoweemon who supported him.

"Thanks," Beetlemon mumbled. JagerLoweemon grunted in response.

" **Crystal Kristall, Ice Eis!** " Came the call from FrigidKudamon just before the earthquake could vanish. JagerLoweemon tried to stumble out of the way, and Beetlemon tripped to the ground when his support left him. The ice encased JagerLoweemon's back half and caught Beetlemon's right arm and leg. Beetlemon awkwardly stood in a half-crouched way. JagerLoweemon roared as the coldness gripped him painfully. Nymphmon dodged in the air to avoid one of the high raising spikes.

Gigasmon and FrigidKudamon sprinted forward, ready to finish their captured prey.

" **Hurricane Gale!** " Sharpened feathers sliced into the ice encasing the Warriors of Thunder and Darkness. JagerLoweemon kicked his hind legs out as they were freed, smashing the rest of the ice around Beetlemon to shards.

Zephyrmon dived down into the fight, holding Kumamon who held two orange balls with spikes known as Tsunomon in his hands. In the distance, Lobomon, Leeremon and Agunimon, along with the Digimon they held, were approaching having gone around the burning forest.

Gigasmon snarled at them. "You think numbers means anything? Ha! No! We still beat you!"

"There's eight of them, two of us, Moleman," FrigidKudamon stated to Gigasmon. "We stand no chance. Correction, _you_ stand no chance." FrigidKudamon turned tail and ran, maneuvering in zig-zags just in case someone decided to attack him. Gigasmon growled as he stared at all of the the Legendary Warriors. Once Beetlemon readied an attack of lightning and JagerLoweemon prepared his Dark Master attack, the former Warrior of Earth dug into the ground and escaped before the attacks could hit him.

"Hey buddies! Missed us?" Agunimon chuckled as he greeted his friends. He held a brown-furred Gabumon, a Kunemon and a Wormmon.

"Where's Rana and Yori?" Leeremon asked, letting the Kudamon around his shoulders slink down to the ground.

Beetlemon started. He had forgotten about them!

"We assigned them to get the in-trainings out of the fire. We have no idea where they are or where they went," JagerLoweemon answered, dedigivolving. The others followed suit.

"That's not good," Koji grunted as he gently dropped a Salamon, Wanyamon and Gummymon to the ground. The Goamon that had been hanging off the Warrior of Light's back ran over to the three and whined and fussed over them.

"My babies! My precious babies!" He cried, licking their faces.

While they all talked about what happened, what they were going to do and where the others could possibly be, Aki glared daggers at them, particularly JP and Koichi. She looked royally pissed.

* * *

 **alternate title: "Ice on Fire, Baby" (cause of that one song that goes Soul on Fire, Feeling Good, Baby, etc.)**

 **Not sure how to describe/do JP's personality. He's a tricky one. I tried to get more interactions between Bukamon and him but i failed ;(. But arent the in-trainings cute? I like Viximon and Koichi's relationship the best! although, the DemiVeemon siblings are more fleshed out**

 **Have you noticed that with all of the L. Warriors' names, they end in 'i' or 'a'? It irritates me to heck because theyre not even. Yori, Aki, Tomoki, Junpei, Izumi, Koji, Koichi. - Rana, Takuya, Kouta. At least with the nicknames Zoe, JP and Tommy don't fall in the categories :) Also, all of the names starting with 'K' have a Human Spirit starting with 'L'. Coincidence? I think yes.**

 **Please leave a review! Support helps motivate me :)**


	6. 6: The Storm Inside

_**SAgotogether:**_ _ **thank you! Sorry about the OCs :) sometimes readying stories with OCs can be bothersome as well, but it just didn't feel right using the Steel Town kids. Hopefully, I can flesh out my OCs better. I have their whole backstories planned out, all their flaws and potential problems, but I struggle getting it down on paper without ending up going on for 30 pages of me rotating around different thoughts and trying to end up back tracking to the main topic. You can see that in some of my chapters all ready :) Particularly with FrigidKudamon ;))( I hope you find my story interesting and keep reading it! If not, continue on searching for the Perfect Fanfiction!**_

 **Thanks for all the favorites and follows everyone! It means a lot to me :)**

* * *

 _ **Chapter Six: The Storm Inside**_

Being thrust into an unknown world was not fun. Nor was being forced to socialize with people you don't know or care about. Aki had already not been having a good day, and she wasn't a social butterfly who looked at every person like they were the best thing to ever happen. She didn't trust people, because they weren't worthy of being trusted. Who knew what they were secretly thinking, or what lies they had told. People were good at lying. She had learned that the hard way. She was not about to trust these strangers who called themselves 'Legendary Warriors'. How absurd. They were just teenagers and kids! The only reason she even believed it was because it's not like she could deny the fact that she was here. Doesn't mean she had to like it though.

Her day had gotten tremendously worse. She _knew_ how to fight. She hated when people acted like she was fragile and incapable of protecting herself. Had she not proven herself capable of fighting? Clearly not. She couldn't even finish one battle without _one_ of them jumping in and 'helping' her. She didn't need _help_. They could go _help_ themselves by staying away from her and letting her fight. They were dragged to this world to defend it, to fight for it, right? Then they should let her _fight,_ and not just toss her off to the sides. And it didn't exactly help that her _Spirit_ was pathetic. Warrior of Wood? What was she, a tree? She couldn't even _look_ at fire without getting burnt! And don't even get her started about the moves. Overgrowth was cool, sure, if there wasn't fire everywhere! Stun Pollen didn't last long enough and it was so easy to evade. And Support Bubble! Support Bubble! She understood healing _herself_ , but helping the others? She didn't _know_ them. She didn't _trust_ them. Why should she have to 'support' them? She should be on the front lines fighting! But it seemed they wouldn't let her, Koichi and JP especially.

Alright, maybe she was being a little harsh on JP. FrigidKudamon or whatever _had_ lead him over, but still! Didn't make her any less pissed. But Koichi? Koichi Kimura and his twin weren't high on her like list. Not that anyone was. At least Koji had some sense to leave her alone, but all mighty Warrior of Darkness just hopped right over and _stole_ her opponent because she was 'too weak'!

Okay, _maybe_ those words weren't his exact words, but it was implied.

"He's made of fire! It's not logical if you fight him. You're made of wood!" Those had been his words. So what if she was made of wood? He was the Warrior of Darkness and he wasn't burning in the sun! Although, _that_ was vampires. She didn't know if beings of darkness would be hurt by light, but whatever. Her point was that she would be _dead_ if that was the case. When she was Nymphmon, she had some sort of armor quality to her body made of branches and leaves. Even when the fire hit her, most of it didn't burn her.

She touched her shoulders. The burns on her wing tips had traveled over to her shoulders and back, but they had healed and were nothing more than irritating. Her arm still moaned and ached, but it was otherwise fine. The bandages on her arm were fine. Along with clothing, it didn't seem they were affected by fighting when Spirit Evolved.

"Do we have any way of contacting them?" Kouta asked the older Legendary Warriors on the topic of their two missing Warriors, Yori and Rana. One would think Aki had more concern for her cousin as he was her flesh and blood, but, really, she rarely communicated with him at family gatherings. They had shared like one word in the past month. And she still remembered that pitying look he had given her three years ago. She didn't _need_ anyone's pity! He didn't know what was going on or what had really happened. He would never know! He didn't _need_ to know either, and she didn't care for his 'words of support'. But, she would be kidding herself if she thought she didn't have an inkling of... association with him. She trusted him the most out of everyone here. She gravitated towards him when she wasn't shying in the shadows and glaring. While she was irritated by him getting protective and chatty with her, her lips kept twitching in a smile at his dumb jokes and 'hints'. She swore he took joy in watching the others look baffled at their friendliness with each other, and because of that, she couldn't help but play along.

"No," Takuya sighed, running his hand through his mousy brown hair. He suddenly jolted, his dark brown eyes widening. "Or- No, wait! We do!" He fished out his black and red D-Tector.

"Does it have a communication feature?" Aki asked with narrowed eyes. It had a map feature and some kind of scan feature, but what else? Was there a tracking feature? Theoretically, if it did, and she ran away, would they, presumably Yori, be able to track her down then?

Takuya gave a nod, concentrating on pressing random buttons.

"Do... Do you not know how to work the D-Tectors?" Aki frowned. What kind of 'Legendary Warriors' were they if they couldn't operate their own devices?

"To be honest, we kind of just smash random buttons until it works," JP chuckled. Aki sent a short, dark glower in his direction.

"Aha!" Takuya cried in success. "Got it!"

"Random button mashing strikes again," Tommy chuckled to Koichi who giggled quietly at the inside joke.

The square screen of Takuya's D-Tector lit up with the symbol that had glowed during Yori's... whatever. The Warrior of Earth's symbol, she guessed it was called. Symbol of Earth?

"Yori!" Takuya and the others called. Aki positioned herself behind Takuya and Kouta, peering over their shoulders, while the others squished around Takuya.

There was muffled voices from the other side that continued throughout the whole conversation like the background noise when someone was on the phone with someone at a public place. There was a sharp jerk of metal against metal, and then the sound of breaking glass.

"Rana!" Came Yori's static-y voice from the D-Tector.

"Ma'am, are you alright?" An unfamiliar chirpish voice inquired with concern.

"Ow..." Someone mumbled. Rana, Aki presumed. As the voice got louder, and probably closer to the D-Tector wherever it is, it was distinctly Rana's. "Y-yes, s-sir. S-sorry..."

There was more shuffling, and the giggling of high-pitched voices.

"Do you want a refill, ma'am?" The chirpish voice spoke again.

"N-no thank you..."

There was some soft static sounds and the shuffling of cloth before Yori or Rana spoke again.

"It's glowing?" Yori questioned.

"Yori?" Kouta tried again.

There was a startled gasp from both Yori and Rana.

"Kouta?" Yori said. "What? Where are you?"

"Where are _you?"_ Takuya reflected. "You don't sound like your anywhere near fire."

"No? Takuya? Is everyone there?" Yori asked.

There was a ring of "Yes"s from everybody, except Aki.

There was a silence as Yori seemed to decipher something.

"Is Aki there?"

Aki scrunched her nose and scowled at the D-Tector as everyone turned to look at her curiously.

"Yes," Aki said curtly. _'Idiot. Where else would I be? ...Dead? Probably.'_

"Where are you?" Zoe emphasized, trying to steer the conversation back on course.

"Uh... In a small restaurant with Rana and the in-trainings?" Yori cleared his throat and raised his voice. "Sir, where are we?"

"Well, just a little ways southeast from t'e New Shinko Village, good sir," the chirpish voice answered.

"New Shinko Village? Yori, _where are you?"_ Takuya stressed, expressing the confusion from himself and everyone else. "A village? We're nowhere _near_ a village! How did you get from a forest fire to a restaurant beside a village? There's no villages in sight!"

"Forest fi-ya?" The chirpish voice mused. "Wasn't t'ere a fi-ya down at t'e castle of Lady Angewomon?"

"Yes, that's where we came from, sir," Yori explained.

"Aye, well you're northwest from t'ere, sonny," the voice hummed. "That'd be why ya can't see us. T'ere's the hills just blockin' us from you."

They were interrupted by the sound of squabbling and a yelp.

"DemiVeemon! Stop poking Koromon!" Yori suddenly yelled. "Viximon, you put that down right now! That's not yours! Drop it!" His voice faded as he presumably chased after Viximon who had something that was definitely not his.

"Poor kid," Gabumon chuckled in her soft, quiet, motherly voice. She was hanging with her two kids, Gaomon, his three kids, Kunemon, Wormmon and Kudamon beside the group of human children, making sure no kids got too curious about the fire. They had moved away from the burning forest, closer to the hills the unfamiliar voice spoke of.

"Uh?" Takuya said stupidly.

There was a mumble from the D-Tector and then a voice loudly yelled into it.

"Hey! It's me! Bukamon! Hello! Hi, JP!" He squeaked excitedly.

"Hey, Buka," JP greeted.

"Ko-i-chi?" Another voice joined Bukamon. "Hello?"

"Viximon?" Koichi answered, a bit confused as he was the one who had been yelled at. "Hey?"

"Kokomon's here too! He says hi!" Bukamon giggled.

"DemiVeemon! I swear! Stealing food is a crime! Hand me the ham!" Yori screamed in the distance. The in-trainings around the D-Tector giggled maniacally.

"We got DemiVeemon to distract him by having Viximon steal a ham from a lady and passing it around until it landed on DemiVeemon so that we could speak to you!" Bukamon explained happily.

"Yay!" Viximon cheered.

"Well, hey to you guys, but can you please give Yori back the phone?" Takuya asked desperately.

"Nuh-uh! Why? It's funner to watch him run around after DemiVeemon and talk to you guys," Bukamon argued childishly.

"But we need to know how to get to him!"

"...Um, I-I'm present..."

"Rana! Oh, we could talk to her to! Bukamon, can we talk to Rana?" Takuya said.

"Well, she's right here, so ya," Bukamon agreed. Viximon yipped as well.

"Do you know how you guys got there, Rana?" Zoe asked kindly. Aki didn't like how they used softer tones around Rana, as if she was a bomb waiting to blow up. She might be shy and anxiety-ridden, but she wasn't stupid. Sometimes, a kind voice could be rude.

"W-well, we were i-in the fire, and D-DemiV-Veemon, uh, the male one, told u-us that there w-was a way out North, s-s-so we went N-North, o-or what-t we th-thought was North, and j-just kept going-g. We-we event-tually found this s-sm-small r-restaurant and we f-fed the in-tr-trainings and... Yeah..."

"Well. Then I guess we just go a direction we think is North, huh?" Takuya joked good-naturedly.

Aki could just imagine Rana flinching. "Sorry."

"Oh! No, it's alright. It's hard to give directions when there's no GPS's anyway. Did you pass any landmarks?" Takuya asked.

"...Hills," Rana mumbled, before speaking up. "Uh, not really. ...I guess th-there was a fancy-y rock shaped like a s-snail half-way."

"No! It was shaped like a sideways bunny head!" Bukamon argued.

"Nuh-uh!" Viximon shot back and the two in-trainings began to argue.

"That's ab-bout it, I-I don't recall a-anything else," Rana finished, speaking over Bukamon and Viximon.

"We can find you off of that, I'm sure," Takuya responded confidently.

"We've been separated far worse," Zoe added with an amused smile and sparkling, reminiscent green eyes. Koji rolled his eyes beside her. The rest of the group gave grins. Aki felt something stir inside her. She felt out of the loop, and she didn't like it.

"O-oh, alright," Rana murmured. "Um... A-anything else?"

Takuya paused, putting on a dumb thinking face. He glanced at the others quizzically. They all shook their heads.

"Nope, guess not," Takuya said.

There was the sound of footsteps from the D-Tector and a sigh.

"...back, did I miss anything?" Yori's voice zoned in.

"N-no, they're gonna come f-find us," Rana informed him softly.

"'kay. Are they still there?" Yori asked.

"Yep!" Takuya, Tommy and Kouta chirped at the same time. They were so positive it was irritating.

"How do you activate this function? You know, in case of emergency?" Yori inquired curiously.

"In case of emergency, press random buttons. Trust us, it will work," Takuya chuckled with a bright, lop-sided, toothy smile, even though Yori couldn't see it.

"That... That doesn't seem logical. Have you guys never learned how to use your own... D-Tectors?" Yori scolded skeptically.

 _'Agreed cousin,'_ Aki huffed to herself. _'We got teamed with illogical idiots.'_

"Nah," Takuya chuckled more dryly and forced this time. His eyes flickered to his friends with a weak smile.

"Oookay then, goodbye, I guess? See you later?" Aki imaged Yori shrugging with his gaze looking off to the side like he usually did.

"Bye"s and "See you later"s were chorused through the group quietly before there was an awkward silence as Takuya fumbled to find a way to turn off the call. Just as Takuya was about to press the final button, Aki felt the words "Stay safe" slip from her mouth moments before the call ended. All of the Legendary Warriors immediately turned to her curiously with raised eyebrows and tilted heads. Aki raised an eyebrow to them as well in a manner of _'What? I can be polite.'_.

Takuya turned back to the others. "Well let's get going. Northwest, huh?" He grinned lop-sidedly.

"How are we gonna transfer the young ones?" Gabumon asked kindly, nodding to the Tsunomon, Salamon, Wanyamon and Gummymon.

"My babies!" Gaomon whined again, hugging Wanyamon and Salamon with his red boxing gloves.

"I'm a Rookie, dad..." The Salamon muttered exasperatedly.

"How many times are you going to say that," Koji murmured under his breath about Gaomon. The blue puppy took no notice of him.

"Easy, the Yin-Yang twins can be your rides," Takuya answered with a smug smile.

"What?" Koji shirked with a short glare at Gaomon.

Koichi chuckled as he nudged his brother playfully. "C'mon, it won't be that bad."

Koji glowered at him before sighing, and Beast Spirit Evolving into KendoGarurumon, a wolf with wheels. Koichi followed suit and digivolved into JagerLoweemon. The lion crouched down, allowing Gabumon to push her pups onto his back. She also placed Kunemon and Wormmon on his back as well before she clambered on herself. Takuya and JP helped Gaomon and his three kids onto a huffing KendoGarurumon. Kudamon curled around Kouta's neck.

"Alright, me, JP and Kouta will ride with KendoGarurumon as well," Takuya announced, gesturing to the Warrior of Light. Aki was about to question about Tommy when Zoe Spirit Evolved into Kazemon. Kazemon picked up the kid similarly to how she had flown into battle with him in her arms before.

"I'll be fine running along side!" Kouta stated confidently with his head raised and a warm smile on his thin lips.

Takuya looked at him doubtfully. "Are you sure?"

"Yes! Leeremon's quick and good at bouncing," Kouta said.

"Alright, if you're sure," Takuya dismissed him with a nod. He climbed onto KendoGarurumon's back beside JP. Kouta Spirit Evolved into the elven Leeremon, Kudamon securely coiled around his pale minty green neck.

Aki grabbed her D-Tector from her pocket and swiped her fractal code over the scanner. " **Execute! Spirit Evolution!** " Being enveloped in the cocoon of blue data was somehow calming. She could hear the serene whispers of flowers around her and the humming of trees whose leaves swayed in the breeze. When she emerged from the cocoon, she felt rooted to the ground, but the moment she flapped her spiky leaf wings, she felt as light as a feather, like a fallen leaf in the wind. She knew when she threw a punch at someone, she would became as heavy as an ancient oak, and that the punch would hurt more than just being slapped by a leaf.

Nymphmon flew above the others, including Kazemon who floated close to the ground. Her eyes scanned the horizon and in the very far distance, over the rounding hills, she could see the village the chirpish voice had talked about. It was just a blocky speck of gray and browns currently but it was a village none-the-less. Her hollow eyes narrowed as she looked for a snail-looking rock through the rolls of the hills. She could see a dot of light gray in the middle of the hills, but she wasn't sure if it was the rock, although it probably was. It's not like the rock was going to be purple or something.

It turns out the rock _was_ purple.

They had stumbled across the rock about ten long minutes into their trek. It was in-between two rather large hills. It was as tall as Nymphmon, so not incredibly large, but the size of a tall Digimon at least. It was a light midnight purple, swirled with dark lines. It was vaguely snail shaped. On its 'shell' it had an odd sideways eight with circles in it scribbled on it.

"They _failed_ to mention it was _purple?!_ " Takuya fumed. "How does one forget a _purple rock?_ "

"I don't know, it's kind of gray if you ask me," Kazemon mused, Tommy nodding in agreement with her.

"You're not serious are you?"

Kazemon giggled. "Of course not, goggle-head." Tommy laughed as well.

They kept heading northwest, more confident since finding the rock, and were quick to locate a small gray building with fancy designs and windows with curly white curtains and a glowing sign at the front entrance that said "Deramon's Family Restaurant".

"I'm guessing this is the place," JagerLoweemon rumbled as Kazemon and Nymphmon landed beside him. He stretched out his front legs, laying down and the ground and allowing his passengers to slide off. KendoGarurumon retracted his wheels and crouched down. Takuya and JP lifted Gaomon and his kids off of the wolf. Kazemon dropped Tommy gently and dedigivolved. Leeremon, Nymphmon, JagerLoweemon and KendoGarurumon did as well. Takuya entered the restaurant with the others behind him and the bell jingled to announce their arrival.

"Taku-yee!" A high-pitched voice yelled joyously as a pink blur slammed into Takuya's arms and nuzzled his chin.

"Hey, buddy!" Takuya grinned at Koromon. Bukamon and Viximon approached JP and Koichi in similar manners, with Kokomon resting on Viximon's head.

"Hey guys," Yori greeted, more focused on the wrestling DemiVeemon in his hands. Well, the male DemiVeemon was punching and kicking playfully while his sister stared blankly at him with a look that just screamed 'You're an idiot'. Rana nodded shyly to them from beside him. They were sitting at the bar with juice boxes beside them.

"Isn't it kind of weird that we just left a forest fire and now we're here? It's kinda surreal," Kouta said, scratching Kudamon's chin.

"I guess, but that's just the Digital World for you," Tommy shrugged. He eyed the juice boxes before turning to the bird with a bush for a tail. "Can I get a juice box?"

"Sure, sir," the bird squawked. It was the one with the chirpish voice. "Do you want grape, apple or orange?"

"Orange, sir," Tommy politely said, drumming fingers on the counter with a content smile.

"What else do you have?" Takuya asked, squinting at the menu.

"You are literally looking at the menu," Koji jabbed.

"Well some of us are blind, Koji," Takuya argued.

Koji lightly glared at him. "You're not blind, Takuya, you just have bad eyesight."

"Are you wearing your contacts?" Zoe asked in a strict motherly tone.

"Yes," Takuya answered shortly.

The bird smiled. "We've got a seasoned steak and soup t'night. It's free. I know you're t'e Legendary W'rriors." He raised a wing to them before turning and grabbing an orange juice box and handing it to Tommy. Tommy took it with a smile.

 _'So they've got a reputation?'_ Aki thought. _'I suppose that's to be expected if they did save the world.'_

"Can't say no to free food!" Kouta grinned, playing with the male DemiVeemon.

"Haven't meet a soul who has," the bird chuckled. "Let me go cook you all up some steak. Do any of you have a preference on gravy?"

"Nope," they chorused.

"Um, no gravy, please," Rana said quietly, toying with her bracelet.

The bird pulled out a notepad and (somehow) wrote down the information. "Alright, what about soup? We've got vegetable, tomato, and chicken noodle."

As the others placed their orders, Aki faded off to the background, taking in her surroundings. There were families of odd-looking Digimon, but she supposed all Digimon looked weird. They were so widely different, that Aki wondered if they had any racism or biast natures. Perhaps between the elements? She could see how 'darkness' could get a bad reputation since in the Human World it was considered to be 'evil'. But if it was one of the elements, and by extension a Legendary Warrior, she figured they probably thought that darkness was alright. A Legendary Warrior wouldn't be evil.

Well. Actually, did those other Warriors count? Whaitirimon and Soladramon and FrigidKudamon and Grumblemon? They were evil. But they weren't the actual Legendary Warriors. Or, that's what she understood. The whole explanation on Legendary Warriors hadn't been good. She wasn't sure.

"Whatcha thinkin' about?" A peppy voice asked. She turned her head to focus her dark green eyes on the speaker. It was the gray seal known as Bukamon, smiling at her.

"..." Aki studied him curiously. From what they had explained to her, he was an in-training level, the second weakest. Knock him down a level, and he was fresh level, also called baby level. The most common level was Rookie, then came the Champion. After that, she believed it was Ultimate, and then the rarely accomplished Mega. But there was also other levels, as well. It got really confusing. Armor, Hybrid (which they had said Bokomon- whoever that was- had explained to them that was their levels when they Spirit Evolved), sometimes they were even classified as 'None', or just 'Unknown'. Their Human Spirit was like a strong Champion level to an Ultimate, and their Beast Spirit was an Ultimate. Then there was something called a Fusion, which only Takuya and Koji had reached, for some reason. And a Unified Spirit? Both of those were Mega levels. It was all confusing.

"So?" Bukamon pressed.

Aki decided to humor him. "The Digital World."

Bukamon grinned. "Yeah, it's weird isn't it? But the Human World is weirder! I heard you that only humans can speak! And they don't even speak the same language. That's so weird!"

Aki thought about that. Humans must be pretty odd to Digimon, just as Digimon were to humans. Not many humans would ever meet a Digimon, though. Only ten of them had, as far as she knew. Had a Digimon ever been to the Human World? How come only humans came to the Digital World? Why not the other way around? The Human World needed a lot of saving, as the trash hole of a planet it was.

...Were there other planets in the Digital World, or was it by itself? Was it a planet to Earth? Were there alien Digimon?

Her head was starting to hurt.

"You look like you're thinking hard," Bukamon stated, flying up close to her face and poking it with a fin. Aki scrunched up her face and backed away from him a bit.

"I suppose," Aki answered curtly.

"And?" Bukamon tilted his head, orange tuft bouncing.

"And that's it," Aki retorted. Why was he so interested? Aki guessed it was his young curiosity, if in-trainings were like young children, or toddlers.

Bukamon huffed. "Why can't you say what you're thinking about?" His eyes suddenly brightened. "Ooooh! Unless you're brooding about your super secret dark past!"

"I don't _have_ a 'super secret dark past'," Aki growled. _'Just an unpleasant one.'_ She remembered the sting of betrayal and her youthful, naive mind's confusion.

"C'mon, you've gotta! You're all angry all the time. My momma said that Digimon like that were hurt in their past, and just need some TLC! I'm sure the same goes for humans," Bukamon explained with a smile.

Aki glared at him.

Bukamon stuck out his fin. "If I tell you a deep dark secret of mine, can you tell me yours?" His voice was more quiet, more mellow, as if he didn't want others to hear.

"What kind of 'deep dark secrets' would _you_ have?" She didn't mean to sound so harsh, but she thought that a small, young Digimon like him couldn't possibly have a dark, haunting past. At least, not yet.

Bukamon nodded to his fin. "Deep, dark secret ones." It was clear he wanted her to shake his fin in a 'pinky promise' way, but Aki wasn't so sure. She didn't _do_ promises. It was like making a deal, except they got all emotional and you never wanted to really complete your side of the promise, but you had to anyway, because you couldn't just lie about your promise. A promise was something you shouldn't break.

Hesitantly, Aki reached out a hand and gently shook his fin. Bukamon had a trustworthy air for someone so young. Hopefully, he wouldn't tell, if he could pry any information out of Aki at all.

Bukamon gave her a small smile before he cleared his throat. "Well, here goes." He paused. "My momma's dead."

Aki felt herself go wide-eyed with shock, and then felt herself fill with empathy. "Oh... I'm sorry for your lose."

Bukamon smiled sadly. "Yeah, but it's alright, 'cause my momma wouldn't want me to be sad, so I keep being happy just for her. So, what's your secret?"

Aki didn't know if she should answer, but she had promised, so she guessed she could cut it down to something more relatable for the seal. "My mother's gone too." That wasn't the whole story. Her mother might have died in a car accident, but she had been gone before that. Even when she was physically with Aki, unbeknownst to the younger Warrior of Wood, she had already been gone emotionally.

Bukamon nuzzled her hand with sympathy. "Aw, I'm sorry. I'm sure she wants you to be happy too."

 _'No,'_ Aki thought bitterly. _'She wished I never existed.'_ Aki didn't know if she was an accident, or if she was planned, but all she needed to know was that her mother had always secretly wished she could just drop Aki and go. She was a good liar, but she wasn't good enough.

Aki felt resentment bubble within her, but she pushed it down. That was five years ago, two years before the divorce and her mother's eventual death. She just wished she could forget it. So she could believe they divorced because they feel out of love, and not because she planned to ditch the family a long time ago. So she never knew her mother secretly hated her, despised her, loathed her. That was a worse feeling than just her mother dying, because a part of her still loved her mother. Still weeped for her.

And now, because her mother was dead, she could never confront her and ask her how she really felt. She would never know if even a little piece of her mother loved her.

"Aki, Bukamon!" Both of their attention was jerked to JP waving them over. "You guys want anything or would you rather starve?"

Bukamon flew over to JP energetically. "I want everything!"

Aki slipped over to the counter and gave Deramon her order.

"You look ang-gry..." A soft voice mumbled. Aki turned her head to glare at the blue-haired girl.

"Yeah, so?" Aki snarled at her. Rana flinched and looked away, fiddling with her beaded bracelet. Aki huffed and crossed her arms, glaring out into the air. She didn't want another sentimental conversation. They only made her angrier.

* * *

 **A look into the mind of Aki! Just to be clear the line of events are: (When she was 9: Her mother did something that showed she didn't love Aki) (When she was 11: Her parents divorced) (A little later when she was 11: Her mother died in a car crash) (When she was 14: She entered the Digital World)**

 **Headcannons for the gang because why not?: -Takuya needs glasses because he has terrible eyesight**

 **-Koichi magically wins at every board game/card game**

 **-Zoe and JP go on fake dates just for fun and talk about the weather or something stupid or do it to get into couple's things**

 **-Koji is actually a gamer**

 **-Tommy likes to get advice for video games from Koji and Takuya's pissed because of it**

 **-Koichi sucks at most video games, but he's a master at button mashing, hence the joke between Tommy and Koichi**

 **-They played D &D once and it did not end well; Koichi, JP and Tommy ended up starting a side game because Koji (the Dungeon Master or whatever its called- narrator?) and Takuya got into an argument and Zoe ended up getting sucked into it. Somedays Koichi, JP and Tommy still play D&D together and don't tell the others about it.**

 **-JP's a really good cook**

 **-Koichi and Takuya have played multiple pranks on the others, but Koichi pranked Takuya one day and the two started a prank war between themselves and it got kind of personal and the others had to tell them to stop and they did... for now** **( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)**

 **-Zoe sometimes starts speaking Italian during an argument so the other person gets confused and she wins through confusion.**

 **Please leave a review! I need the support ;^; I am a weakling**


	7. 7: Crying Petals

**_risa:_** ** _I'm glad you dislike Aki! Disliking a character means one of two things, 1) they're so poorly written it's irritating, or 2) they're written well enough that you feel actual annoyance towards them, and since I'm a optimistic person, I'll take the second one! And Rana's going to be an interesting character to write (although I think I have her figured out, my problem character is going to be writing Kouta). Thank you for the review!_**

* * *

 ** _Chapter Seven: Crying Petals_**

Rana had never been privileged to such a meal before. She'd rarely been to restaurants with her parents, only with her extended family, and even then it was at a laid-back, cheap place. The steak, soup and appetizers had melted her taste buds with flavor, and needless to say she was stunned. How could anything have such seasoning and be so fresh and, and... How did one describe food? She really only ever had old bread, cereal and dry poptarts. Pizza or sushi for dinner if she was lucky. And to get it all for free? She couldn't tell if it was a dream come true, or too weird to be true.

After they had finished eating at Deramon's Family Restaurant, they had decided to head over to the New Shinko Village to see if they could find a hotel of some sort and to put the in-trainings in an orphanage or shelter. They had found a place called "Home of the Maigo", recommended to them by one of the diners. They were currently registering all of the in-trainings and Rookies into the orphanage. It made Rana very sad that they were all without parents. She couldn't imagine what it would be like if she lost her parents. But Gabumon and Gaomon had volunteered to stay at the orphanage and help out with all the little kids.

"Wonder what happened to the Village of Beginnings," Takuya mused, but there was a sad edge to it.

"It must not have been rebuilt," Tommy responded quietly.

"The Village of Beginnings?" Rana inquired softly.

Tommy and Takuya traded mournful looks. "It was the place where Digimon were reborn at."

Rana solemnly bowed her head. From what they had explained, Digimon were reborn into Digi-eggs when they died, usually without memory of their past lives.

"O-oh..." Rana said awkwardly. She wondered what it was like, saving the world, and now coming back to save it again, but it was different, and places you saved had changed, and places you didn't manage to save were demolished. How would she feel? Would she feel numb, determined, or depressed? What of the people she would have met? The friends they had left behind, the enemies they had made? They had spoken fondly of a Bokomon and Neemon, and Rana remembered the malice in their eyes when they had noticed Grumblemon. But there had also been confusion. Something about purifying his Spirits?

After that sad conversation, they had finished registering the in-trainings into the Home of the Maigo. The workers of the orphanage had been kind enough to sign them into a hotel to stay the night in. A Biyomon, a pink bird and the desk lady, handed them a card.

"Here, use this so they know we've signed you in. Although, I'm sure they'd recognize you as humans anyway," Biyomon informed them politely. It seemed like humans were treated as special, as saviors in this world. She wondered if that would be the same if Digimon went to the Human World. Probably not. They would be captured and probed and treated as lower beings. Digimon also had freaky powers. Humans would not enjoy that.

With a jolt, Rana realized _she_ was now one of those digital monsters that they would hate. When she went back home, would anyone know? Would anyone realize? Would anyone tear her away from her family and use her as a science experiment? If they knew, would they discriminate her?

"Alright, thank you," Takuya responded, taking the card from Biyomon's clawed wing.

The Hawkmon waved to them as the human children left. "Stay safe, Warriors!"

They began to look for the Natsunoyo Hotel that the bird Digimon had given them vague directions and descriptions for. There was an awkward silence as no one talked. Or at least, Rana found it awkward. Maybe the others found it peaceful? Or maybe they weren't even thinking about the silence and were lost in there own thoughts? Kouta certainly had that distant eyed look despite his chipper attitude. Aki and Koji had their typical cold demeanors up, while Koichi and Tommy had more softer looks. JP and Yori wore more neutral looks. Takuya was stressing over the hotel, but not exactly. 'Stressing' wasn't the right word. He didn't seem stressed. More like 'desperately but also goofily searching for the Natsunoyo Hotel'? Yeah, that kind of worked. He had furrowed eyebrows as he looked from the card to the buildings, but he wore a confident, light-hearted smile. Zoe was beside him and frowning at him as he huffed and whined comically as he looked for the hotel.

Rana rolled the beads of her bracelet as she examined the village. She hadn't been quite paying attention when the bird Digimon had given the description of the Natsunoyo Hotel, but she just wanted to observe the village. It wasn't exactly the same as a human village, but there were strong similarities. God, she'd never thought she'd think that. Putting 'human' in front of a word in that context. Using it as an adjective.

Rana suppressed a sigh. She was here, in this Digital World, so she was just going to have to deal with it until it proved itself a dream and she woke up.

She was scared. Of course she was. Who in their right minds would want to be a Legendary Warrior? Maybe people like Takuya who were stubborn and optimistic and loud. But she wasn't one of those people. She was no hero.

Rana squeezed her eyes out and shut out the thoughts. She didn't want to worry about things. That's all she ever did, and all she ever ended up doing. Right now, she was going to be calm, and observe the nice, peaceful, pretty village.

She opened her eyes. New Shinko Village wasn't big on flashy, bright colors, but she didn't think any village was, human or digital. The buildings were a soft, dusty brown and gray, and the pathways and roads were made of pebbles and old hay. While most houses were more like huts, there were tall stone buildings for businesses. They were currently looking for one of those buildings, with a white sign out front, from what little she recalled.

A small white cat Digimon with gloves tilted his head at the humans as they travelled. His tufted ear twitched and he whispered something to the purple imp with a smiley face on her stomach beside him. She nodded and watched the humans turn the corner with slitted eyes.

There were whispers about the humans everywhere they went. Rana didn't like the attention. Most of it was positive, but that didn't mean Rana enjoyed it. She shouldn't be classified as a hero. That wasn't her. She hadn't done anything. She could only run like a coward. She never fought back. She couldn't.

Rana felt herself wince, outwardly and inwardly. She had yet to fight at all. She ran away the first battle, she was too scared to fight during practice and she was babysitting the in-trainings in the fire.

Practice. They might of thought she had some secret quick relexes when 'she' had swung around and hit Lobomon- which she was still sorry for. But that wasn't her. That's what had startled her the first battle, and why she ran away. Hearing voices was never a good sign. But the voice had calmed her down and guided her to the others. Then it coached her on how to fight back, or at least defend herself. She never defended herself when someone started punching. She didn't know how to.

During the practice fight against Lobomon, the voice had taken over for a brief period of time. The voice was more skilled than Rana, by far, and had sensed Lobomon quicker than she could tell Rana to dodge. Rana had let her take over. The voice had also informed her of her attacks. Well, except for the Cry of the Water Princess. She wondered why the voice hadn't told her of that attack. Was there some consequence for using the attack? Maybe she shouldn't put her trust in the voice. Maybe the voice was planning something. Voices weren't normally kind and well-intentioned.

"Aha! Found it!" Takuya cried elatedly, pointing to a tall, dark gray stone building with a thin white sign. Written sloppily in running ink that had long dried was "Natsunoyo Hotel! 24/7", although the 'u' and 'n' were merged as one letter and '24/7' was tiny and in the corner.

"Yay, finally," Koji muttered dryly.

"Ooh! There's a restaurant beside it," Zoe stated happily, eyes shining. The restaurant was a horizontally long building with a flat hay roof and was made of strong oak wood. The neat sign read "Peter's Diner". There were soft lights decorated on it.

"Free food," Tommy added hopefully, adjusting the orange hat he had grown into.

Koichi chuckled with a warm smile. "They probably have food in the hotel."

"Why would they when they have a restaurant right here?" Zoe argued.

"Uh, profit?" Yori responded with a raised eyebrow. They group chatted lightly and entered the Natsunoyo Hotel. At the front desk was a Labrador puppy with curly red ears and a fairy girl with shining, golden wings and a green bow in her dusty long blonde hair. While the Labrador narrowed his eyes at the Warriors, the fairy girl smiled pleasantly.

"Hello!" The fairy held out her hand. "Welcome to the Natsunoyo Hotel. Open twenty-four seven!" Her eyes gleamed. "So you're humans, huh? Labra here has spoken so fondly of you." She gave her glaring dog friend an amused look before returning her attention to the children. "Card, please."

The original Warriors gave the dog, 'Labra', an odd look, before Takuya handed the fairy the card. Rana wondered if they knew 'Labra'. They didn't seem to. Maybe 'Labra' had been a bystander during one of their fights? Or maybe 'Labra' had been told something from someone who did have an interaction with the Legendary Warriors? Maybe he was just jealous?

The fairy inspected the card. She fluttered her glowing golden wings and the card glowed. She handed the card back to Takuya with a sweet smile. "The Home of the Maigo signed you in, correct?" She didn't bother waiting for an answer and continued on. "Your card will now open Rooms 115, 116 and 118 on Floor C." She flicked her wrist and there was suddenly two more cards in her hand. She smirked at their stunned stares. She held them out and Zoe and JP hesitantly grabbed them. She winked. "If you ever need more cards, just ask me!"

'Labra' growled and tapped his claws on the desk top. The fairy nodded to the Labrador.

"Labramon will be your guide," the fairy giggled. "My name is Tinkermon, for your information."

Labramon scowled and slipped away from the desk, dissapearing for a second due to his height. He reappeared around the corner and walked over to a map on a wall. Takuya and JP traded looks before the Warrior of Fire shrugged and trailed after the golden dog.

Labramon nodded to the map of the hotel. "There's one of these on every floor. If you touch a certain area, you can zoom in and get information on it."

"What?!" They all gasped.

"But it's a normal paper map pinned on a wall?" Yori questioned, voice raising an octave.

Labramon glared at the pale-haired Warrior of Earth. "Yeah. And this is the Digital World."

JP shrugged. "I guess that's true. You can explain everything here by saying it's the Digital World."

Kouta nudged himself to the front of the group of ten and poked a section of the map. The map turned gray, like pencil marks, and 'redrew' itself into a zoomed in version of the section Kouta touched. Information wrote itself on the side of the map. "Swimming Pool", it read at the top. Color slowly filled the lines.

They all studied the map in awe.

"How do I go back?" Kouta asked innocently.

"Just touch it again," Labramon growled. Kouta tapped the map with his knuckles and it redrew itself again, turning back to a lay-out of the first floor of the hotel.

"Cool!" Kouta's eyes sparkled. "I wish we had stuff like this in the real world!"

"We have electronics," Tommy said.

Labramon pushed his way past the Warriors, strolling over to an elevator beside a plant. He nodded his head toward it but continued walking.

"That's the elevator," Labramon grumbled before stopping at an entrance to another room. "This is the lunchroom, not like it matters though. No one goes here when there's a friggin' restaurant outside. Stupid Peter..."

Takuya furrowed his brows with a confused look. "I'm sorry, but do I know you? Your voice sounds oddly familiar."

Labramon snorted. "Yes."

Once again, the original Legendary Warriors traded puzzled looks. "Uh?"

They six fell into silence while Yori and Aki looked at them suspiciously. Rana herself twitched and messed with her bracelet. How come they couldn't recognize him then? Hadn't they said when they defeated an enemy they were reborn? Perhaps Labramon was one of those former enemies. But then why could he remember them? Didn't Digimon forget their past lives when they were reborn? Or were there exceptions?

"H-How do y-you know th-them?" Rana asked quietly and hesitantly.

"What's it to you, aqua girl?" Labramon sneered. Rana sqeaked and blushed madly. She just liked the color blue! It was like an identity thing! It wasn't that weird, was it?

"Hey, no need to be rude," Takuya defended her with a frown.

Leeremon huffed. "Whatever, Warrior of Fire."

Takuya's eyes widened. "How did you know I'm the Warrior of Fire?"

 _'If we go off colors, you have on a red t-shirt,'_ Rana thought silently. Leeremon glared with narrowed eyes at the goggle-headed boy.

"If I met you, why wouldn't I know who you are, hot-head?" Labramon tested.

"Labby! Stop pestering the guests!" Tinkermon shouted. Labramon growled at her and she threw a pen across the room in response. Labramon yelped as the pen narrowly missed stabbing him in the eye.

"Hey! Damn human types..." Labramon grumbled, rubbing a paw over his head. "Lord Cherubimon shoulda whipped you off the planet."

"So you were one of Cherubimon's minions?" Koichi asked softly, although it was phrased like a quiet statement. Labramon nodded with a cold stare at Koichi.

"Cherubimon? Who's Cherubimon?" Aki questioned with suspicion.

"He used to be our big baddie before he reformed," JP explained. "He's one of the three Celestial Angels."

"Like angel-face?" Aki said.

"Lady Angewomon, yeah," JP corrected. Rana noticed they had a lot of respect for Lady Angewomon. How important was she? What had she done for the Warriors? How had she earned the title of a Celestial Angel?"

Everyone jumped as there was a scream from outside and clattering. The original six immediately reacted, dashing out of the Natsunoyo Hotel. The new four followed after them, Labramon at their heels and Tinkermon launching herself over the counter.

"Hey! You're disturbing the diners!" A deep voice yelled. The owner of the voice was a man dressed in a green and golden jacket, a green hat with a red feather, golden hair and sheaths for knives on his hips. He was standing in front of Peter's Diner and glaring at the beast lounging on top of his restaurant. It was a lizard with a wooden face, a mane of dark red leaves, a back made of grass and moss, a two-tailed tail and bundles of wood jutting out from his back. Instead of claws, he had dark red leaves with sharp edges.

Digimon ran out of Peter's Diner frantically. Monstrous black and brown-furred Doberman Pinchers with piercing red eyes and a metal collar with spikes around its neck surrounded the restaurant. Well, not only the restaurant. They also lurked around the alleyways of the town, snarling at innocent bystanders and stealing their items.

"Petermon!" Tinkermon called, flying over to the man with the knife sheaths.

He tilted his head but kept his body angled towards the threat. "Sis!"

Labramon dashed over to the two, growling at the mossy lizard. The ten Legendary Warriors fanned out behind the three.

The lizard licked his maw with an ivy-like tongue, hunger in his white pupil-ed eyes. "I've heard this restaurant's got good reviews. Wouldn't mind giving me a free snack, would you?"

"You've gotta pay!"

"Petaldramon," Tommy murmured darkly. "I would have thought Chamelemon would have been his lackeys instead of Dobermon."

"Well, these guys usually come in pairs, so whoever his companion is must be a canine or dark Digimon," Labramon rumbled, not taking his eyes off Petaldramon.

Petermon narrowed his eyes in distrust at the Labrador. "And how would you know, mister?"

Tinkermon fluttered her sparkly wings. "Later, bro." She raced forward towards a trio of Dobermon that were terrorizing a pair of bunny Digimon. " **Speed Nightmare!** " A red lance appeared in her hands and she stung it into the side of the smallest Dobermon who yelped and stumbled onto its side. The other two Dobermon, a large male and a blue-eyed female, snarled at Tinkermon and jumped at the fairy who fluttered away.

Labramon leaped in front of Tinkermon and snarled, a blue and white light enveloping him.

" **Labramon digivolve to... Seasarmon!** " He was now a bulky white dog with a stout face, a golden mane of large spikes, wispy golden paws and tail, and a golden unicorn horn. The Dobermon, all of them, paused, tilting their heads with curious, slitted eyes. The blue-eyed one let out a low snarl followed by a bark. Seasarmon paused as well, slowly tilting his head before letting out a low, echoing 'boof'. The blue-eyed Dobermon responded with a series of barks, and the large male put in his own two barks.

Seasarmon raised his head. "Revenge sounds sweet. Keep your paws off the hotel and its a deal."

Tinkermon looked to Seasarmon with surprise. "Seasar-"

The Dobermon cut her off with a sharp bark and a nod. Seasarmon curled his pale purple claws in the ground before whipping around. Without warning, he snapped his jaws around Takuya, who shouted in surprise, kicking at the large mutt.

"Takuya!" Zoe and Tommy yelled together.

"Seasarmon!" Tinkermon gasped. Seasarmon heeded her no response and launched onto a house, his weight lighting crushing the hay roof. He hopped from house to house, building to building, until he was out of sight, taking Takuya with him. "Seasar! Pupper! You get back here! Seasar!"

Tinkermon's cries were lost on the dog's ears.

The Dobermon lurched forward, snapping at the villagers, and at the Legendary Warriors. The immediately responded with their calls of " **Execute! Spirit Evolution!** ". Rana flinched and maneuvered herself to the back of the crowd. Hesitantly, she put her hand on her D-Tector, but she couldn't muster the strength to pull it from her pocket.

 _'Do you really think you can fight? What could you do? You can't fight. You're a hindrance. You're useless. You're a mistake,'_ Rana's thoughts echoed loudly in her head. _'You're just taking up space. Stay small in the back, or you're gonna cause a problem.'_ Rana closed her eyes and took deep breaths.

 _'I need to. I'm weaker as a human.'_ Rana breathed in. _'Pessamon can take over._ _'_ She breathed out. The fractal code surrounded her hand and she slowly swiped it across her blue D-Tector.

" **Execute! Spirit Evolution!** "

The data cocoon surrounded her, and everything muted. There was eerie silence, and her sense of feelings disappeared as well. It felt like everything in the moment was just a blank slate. What had she been doing? What was she going to do? Instead of being certain of what was happening, it was just like she was reading about what was happening. Something beyond her senses was flowing with power. Like her fingertips were brushing a hurricane. There was a pull on her body, as if something was trying to pull her. But something else felt like it was pushing her back. The cocoon broke.

"Pessamon!"

 _"Dodge to the left."_ Pessamon immediately reacted, moving her otter-woman body like it was a piece of heavy armor on her. A Dobermon barreled past her.

She took a deep breath, the world around her blurry. She always felt dizzy after Spirit Evolving, like she had been dissociated from the world. She managed to focus back into the world, her vision sharpening, despite her lack of eyes as a Digimon.

Petaldramon curled his leaf claws into Peter's Diner, sniffing the air. He lazily turned to face the Warriors as one of them sent an attack his way. He smirked at them.

"Hello, Warriors," Petaldramon rumbled, licking his chops. He opened his mouth to say more when his eyes widened, glazing over. They suddenly turned red, bug-eyed staring at them. His body twitched. "You." His face turned into that of a snarl, but no noise came out. "You." Who was he talking about? His eyes and nose twitched. Tears pricked at the corners of his red eyes. "You murderer!"

The Warriors jumped as Petaldramon screeched. Beetlemon turned to Lobomon confused.

"Since when did he cry?" Beetlemon mumbled, face furrowed in confusion, and a hint of worry. Whether it was towards Petaldramon, or Petaldramon's sanity, Rana did not know.

Petaldramon scrunched up his body, raising his split tail threateningly. " **Thorn Jab!** " His tail came back down, curling around the restaurant and stabbing into the ground. The ground rumbled, and below Nymphmon, Loweemon and Kumamon vines burst forth. Nymphmon, startled, tried to fly away, but the vines wrapped her and she panicked, trying to kick at the vines. Kumamon froze the vines after him, while Loweemon used his Shadow Lance attack to keep the vines at bay.

" **Overgrowth** , **Overgrowth** , **Overgrowth** ,urrgh! Why isn't this working?!" Nymphmon screeched, Kazemon and Hantamon at her side, fending off the drooling, vicious Dobermon.

Without even turning to look at Nymphmon, as his attention was focused on either Kumamon or Loweemon, Petaldramon said hollowly, "Their my vines, replacement." Pessamon guessed, based off the insult towards Nymphmon, that Petaldramon was probably the former Warrior of Wood.

Petaldramon glared with red eyes at the two Warriors who were dodging his vines. "Murderer..." He muttered under his breath. Pessamon shivered. Who was he calling murderer? Was it one of the original Warriors? Did... Did one of them permanently destroy a friend of Petaldramon? ...

 _"Rana, focus. You're in a fight."_ Pessamon jumped, startled. She had forgotten completely about both the voice and the fight. Currently, the Dobermon were targeting those dealing with vines or bystanders. What should she do? What _could_ she do?

 _"Help the bystanders,"_ the voice said as if it was obvious, which it probably was. Pessamon slinked along the sidelines of the main battle, trying to find a villager who wasn't holding their own. With persuasion from the voice, she managed to use Ocean Shards on a snarling Dobermon. The Dobermon backed off as one of the shards hit him in the eye. He whined, just like a little puppy, and rubbed his paw over his face. Pessamon felt horrible for attacking the Dobermon.

 _'What if he's just doing this because the rest of the Dobermon are like his pack, and he's following them? What if he was being forced to fight? What if he didn't realize he was doing any wrong?'_ Pessamon thought, covering her fear of fighting with worry for her enemy.

 _"But right now he's attacking someone who's innocent,"_ the voice added in. Pessamon hesitantly agreed. She cast another Ocean Shards towards the Dobermon and he hopped away, not wanting to fight an opponent who could fight back. The Digimon he was attacking, a black cat, mewed her thanks to her before she ran away to her friends and helped them against a pair of Dobermon. Pessamon felt a small burst of delight in her chest. She had done something.

 _'Not that I had done much. That Dobermon was weak,'_ her thoughts sneered. Pessamon shook them off. She needed to focus on the battle. She had to do more. She couldn't be useless, again.

 _"Watch your left. Peteldramon's vines have gone wild,'_ the voice told her. Pessamon heeded her advice, and turned to her left, keeping an eye (or lack there of) on the battle of Petaldramon and vines versus the Legendary Warriors. Kumamon had disappeared, along with Beetlemon, and Pessamon had to guess that they might have gone to help other places of the town, like the Home of the Maigo. Nymphmon had gotten out of the vines with assistance from Kazemon and Hantamon. Kazemon was keeping an eye in the sky, using her wind attacks to protect the villagers while Nymphmon and Hantamon hesitantly tag teamed. Leeremon was hopping around, messing with the Dobermon and dancing around the vines. Loweemon had clearly been singled out by Petaldramon. The beast jumped down in front of the humanoid lion, blank-faced and red-eyed.

"Arbormon..." Petaldramon whispered as if talking to himself. His eyes hardened. Loweemon didn't hear him, but strained his ears trying to. Petaldramon spoke up, snarling at the Warrior of Darkness. "Murderer!"

Loweemon's ears flattened. "What are you talking about?" Something in Loweemon's deep voice stressed, going up a pitch. Fear flickered in his eyes.

"Yesterday's ally is today's enemy," Petaldramon spat. Recognition suddenly flashed in Loweemon's eyes. Terror and guilt soon followed. " **Leaf Cyclone!** " Loweemon's attention was drawn from the vines he was fighting off so he could defend himself from the hurricane of leaves that shot out from Petaldramon's nostrils. He spun his lance to destroy the leaves. The vines made their move.

Nymphmon, who was close to the battle, glanced at the vines, and she seemed to look like she wanted to help for a moment, before her gaze flickered to Petaldramon and her hollow eyes narrowed, and she moved away from the fight. Pessamon could just guess what she was thinking. An accusation like 'murderer' doesn't just come from nowhere.

 _"Innocent until proven guilty,"_ the voice said, strong and loud. Pessamon found herself listening to the voice and running forward.

" **Flow of River!** " She used it on two Dobermon that had been lurking forward to pounce on Loweemon when his guard was down. The two dark Digimon yelped as they glowed blue, caught of guard. When it went away, they both traded glances of confusion. One of them used their attack, Black Beam, to test if anything had changed, and they were both surprised to see gusts of wind appear from its mouth and not a deadly black beam like the name implied. Not used to being Digimon of wind, they tripped over themselves and whined, not knowing if they should attack, or how they would.

Lobomon raced forward, intent on defending his brother from the vines, but Petaldramon caught him off-guard by slamming him with a large vine. Lobomon flew back into a hut due to momentum, and his weight made him crash through it. There was a bright light, and Pessamon guessed he dedigivolved.

* * *

Koji grunted, grasping his left shoulder. He had slammed through both walls of the hut, and had hit his shoulder pretty bad against the wall of the next hut. Hopefully it wasn't dislocated. Other than some cuts and bruises, he was fine. Exhausted and winded, but fine. He struggled to get onto his feet and decided to rest before he went back out to help his twin.

 _'Goddamn Petaldramon, going on about Koichi being a murderer. He's_ not _a murderer! That was Duskmon. And if he's a murderer, than so are we! We also defeated Digimon and purified them. I purified Arbormon's Beast Spirit._ I _purified Petaldramon! Does that not make me a murderer? And they were reborn! Digimon we purify are reborn. Petaldramon was reborn. So why is he going on about being murdered?'_ Koji took deep breaths. Once he was certain he had calmed down and had enough strength, he began to prop himself up against the wall with a groan.

He paused as his eyes caught on something out of place. Sitting peacefully on the roof of a hut was a white and blue Digimon. It was humanoid, but it had beak, although it was just an extension of its face, and it had a flared tail of tan feathers, along with tan feathers on its head that looked like hair. Instead of hands it had three deep blue claws, the same for its feet. Something was tied around its neck, and it looked dirty and old due to its pale blue color and ragged look. It wore white and blue armor and clothes. Its base color was white, with dark blue lines and markings and eyes. From this angle, Koji couldn't see it well, but there was something else on its shoulder, as evident by a pale red scaly tail hanging from there. It was watching the battle emotionlessly, or maybe with disdain. There was a glow on its head. A gem in the middle of its forehead, perhaps? It was glowing a red, the same red as Petaldramon's eyes.

Koji had never seen or heard of a Digimon like it. He narrowed his eyes and studied the Digimon. What was it doing here? Was it a villager? Then why were no Dobermon attacking it, and why wasn't it helping its fellows?

And then it spoke. Not towards Koji, so Koji guessed it was speaking to its companion on its shoulder.

"It's kind of twisted that they put Arbormon's actual murderer on the team with Petaldramon," it said in a boyish, dead-pan, deep voice. Koji guessed 'it' was a 'he'. The figure on his shoulder popped its head forward, chirping, and revealing it was somewhere between bird-like and dragon-like in design. It had a sharp, pointed head and two tiny dark yellow eyes, It looked oddly familiar.

 _'Arbormon's actual murderer?'_ Koji's breath caught in his throat, and he felt his heartbeat stop for a second. _'Duskmon?'_ Was Duskmon somewhere here? Lurking in the shadows? It had been in the back of his mind since Labramon had mentioned Petaldramon's teammate being a 'canine or dark Digimon'. It would make sense, if the dark Digimon was Duskmon. He was the former, corrupted Warrior of Darkness.

 _'But we purified his Spirits!'_ Not like that had stopped Grumblemon and Petaldramon from appearing. _'But Koichi had been in control of Duskmon, to an extent. Grumblemon and the others were independent.'_ Would that have affected anything? Did it matter? If Yori had been in control of Grumblemon back then, would Grumblemon still be here today?

 _'Why hasn't Duskmon showed his face?'_ Wouldn't Duskmon rather fight Koichi than let Petaldramon take him? Wouldn't Duskmon have more of a reason to fight Koichi? Or, what would Duskmon's motive actually be? Jealousy because he was replaced as the Warrior of Darkness, just like Grumblemon had been angry that he had been stripped of his title of Warrior of Earth? For some reason, Duskmon didn't strike Koji as the jealous type.

 _'Then again, we never met Duskmon. We only met Koichi as Duskmon.'_

Koji closed his eyes. He was going in circles. He needed to focus on the battle happening now. If Duskmon decided to show his ugly eyeballs, Koji would be ready.

Koji grunted and pulled himself up.

" **Execute! Spirit Evolution!** "

* * *

Pessamon dodged a vine that warned her she had gotten too close to the battle going on between Loweemon and Petaldramon. She tried to dip out of the way of a Dobermon that launched at her, a maw full of sharpened fangs ready to rip her to shreds, but she tripped on her otter boot-ed feet. Pessamon felt her heart jump out through her throat as the Dobermon snapped inches away from her face as she put her staff in front of her. Drool from the Dobermon's mouth dripped onto Pessamon's face, and the Dobermon pushed down with his weight. Pessamon struggled to keep the Dobermon from ripping her apart, her arms shaking and wobbling. The Dobermon pushed down, puffing hot breath on Pessamon's face.

 _'I'm not gonna make it!'_

 _"Use Cry of the Water Princess,"_ the voice instructed her. Pessamon felt hesitant. Why hadn't the voice told her of the move earlier? What was wrong with it?

 _"Nothing, it's just special,"_ the voice said, a bit strained despite its regal tone. Pessamon had a feeling that wasn't all. Why was it special? Was it really powerful, or...?

The Dobermon took her moment of not concentrating to move forward, trying to bite her face. Pessamon felt something push from inside her, and she immediately let go of her senses, recognizing it as when the voice had taken over. She was now an observer in the background, and she felt nothing. She felt no breeze, she felt no push from the Dobermon. She smelled nothing. She felt nothing. She only saw and heard what 'Pessamon' saw and heard. She couldn't move herself, but she didn't mind. It was just like watching a movie, but your neck was broken and couldn't move.

'Pessamon's' strength was far greater than Rana's, and it was glaringly obvious. 'Pessamon's' arms snapped straight, and the Dobermon yelped at the sudden movement, tumbling over. She didn't even need to use Cry of the Water Princess. She raised her arms and cried " **Ocean Shards!** ". The shards of water sliced at the Dobermon swiftly. The Dobermon howled and suddenly became a silhouette. Blue code appeared around him. Rana caught the name 'Fractal Code' from one of 'Pessamon's' passing thoughts. 'Pessamon' pulled Rana's D-Tector from thin air and scanned the Fractal Code silently. Rana sensed curiosity poking through 'Pessamon's' mental barriers.

 _'Has she never used a D-Tector before? Well, it's not like I have either,'_ Rana thought in the background. Once 'Pessamon' finished scanning the Fractal Code and the Digi-egg flew away, she leaped onto a hut gracefully, gazing out onto the battlefield.

 _"Rana,"_ 'Pessamon' thought to her. _"You need to learn to fight. I can't keep taking your battles for you. Advising you what to do is one thing, but fighting the fight is another."_

 _'I know,'_ Rana thought guiltily. She would be lying if she said she hadn't been extremely relieved when 'Pessamon' had taken over.

 _'Who are you?'_ Rana asked, although she already had her suspicions. Apparently, 'Pessamon' had caught her suspicions in her thoughts.

 _"Yes, I am the Spirit of Pessamon,"_ 'Pessamon' responded.

 _'What's so special about the Cry of the Water Princess?'_ Rana inquired, mentally narrowing her eyes.

 _"..."_ 'Pessamon' was silent for a moment, and Rana caught feelings of dread flowing off from her. _"There's... bad memories connected to it for me. Nothing is wrong with the attack itself, I assure you."_ 'Pessamon' collected herself. Rana felt her consciousness being tugged forward. Rana didn't want to, but she felt the breeze on her arms, and she knew she was back in control, and where there was once the buzzing of 'Pessamon's' muted thoughts, there was a wall of silence. Rana inwardly sighed.

Leeremon suddenly appeared on the roof of the hut beside Pessamon, whining and holding his tail.

"Ouch!" He said, rubbing it. He must've gotten bitten by a Dobermon. He stretched out his tail and sighed, eyebrows furrowed as he looked out at the commotion. "Three battles in two days..." He muttered, and for the first time, he looked concerned and hesitant. He shrugged his worries of his shoulder, though, and flung himself back into battle. He attacked two Dobermon at once, flinging his Dark Orbs at the two. One Dobermon yelped and trembled as if attacked, while the other slumped over as if fatigued.

Pessamon sighed and turned back to the alleyways where Dobermon were picking on harmless villagers. She was off to fight the cowardly ones, the weak ones. It's not like she was any different from them, though.

* * *

 **So I was looking through some of my scrapped Digimon Frontier stories, and one of my favorite moments was this (over text):**

 **"** _ **" In all seriousness can we just stop texting and deal with this in the morning? My eyes can abrely stay open-minded "**_ **-Koji**

 ** _" *Barley "_ -Koji**

 ** _" *BARNEY "_ -Koji**

 ** _" NO BARLEY "_ -Koji**

 ** _" URRRGH BARELY " -_ Koji**

 ** _" Finally "_ -Koji**

 ** _" What about open-minded? ? "_ -Koichi**

 ** _" MAYBE MY EYES CAN BE OPEN-MINDED IF THEY WANT TO KOICHI "_ -Koji "**

 **I find this very amusing because i actually made BOTH typos when writing this XD along with another time where JP texting "bug-thing" changed to "big-times" which i had to roll with (basically, any typos i made, i could NOT undo, since it was texting, and you make typos while texting, right?)**


End file.
